Chapter Thirty.
“If I Had Known You Sooner.”
As Maggie was leaving the crowded drawing-room, she came face to face with Rosalind. One of those impulses which always guided her, more or less, made her stop suddenly and put her hand on the young girl’s shoulder.
“Will you come home with me?” she asked.
Rosalind was talking gaily at the moment to a very young undergraduate.
“I am obliged to you,” she began; “you are kind, but I have arranged to return to St. Benet’s with Miss Day and Miss Marsh.”
“I should like you to come now with me,” persisted Maggie in a grave voice.
Something in her tone caused Rosalind to turn pale. The sick fear, which had never been absent from her heart during the evening, became on the instant intolerable. She turned to the young lad with whom she had been flirting, bade him a hasty and indifferent “Good-night,” and followed Maggie out of the room.
Hammond accompanied the two girls downstairs, got their cab for them, and helped them in.
After Rosalind consented to come home, Miss Oliphant did not address another word to her. Rosalind sat huddled up in a corner of the cab; Maggie kept the window open, and looked out. The clear moonlight shone on her white face and glistened on her dress. Rosalind kept glancing at her; the guilty girl’s terror of the silent figure by her side grew greater each moment.