She looked up into his face, her own misery blotting out all other things.
"Larry! can't you stay?"
Asshlin passed his hand across his forehead.
"Don't ask me, Clo! Good-night!"
An instant later he was gone.
She ran out into the hall on the moment that she realised her desertion.
"Larry!" she called—"Larry!"
But her voice was drowned in the gale, as Burke opened the hall door and the wind rushed in, filling the wide black hall. There was a confused suggestion of storm and lantern-light; a vague silhouetted vision of Burke, bent and small, and of Asshlin, straight, lithe, and tall. Then the door closed with a thud. Lantern, figures, and storm were alike shut out from her knowledge. She was alone in the great house.
CHAPTER XIX
Almost at the same hour that Clodagh sat down to play cards with Laurence Asshlin at Orristown, Nance was seated with Daisy Estcoit in the lounge of the Carlton. After her sister's departure, Mrs. Estcoit had borne her off to be her guest at the hotel; and now, the little party of four having dined in the restaurant, she had gone to her room to discuss a business letter with her son, leaving the two girls ensconced under one of the big palm-trees.