She stopped, her lips working; suddenly covering her eyes with her hand, as another sob gushed from her, she humbly muttered:
"Forgive me. I am nearly out of my senses."
He sprang up, touched a bell, and whispered to Jenkins, who instantly was with him: "Brandy—quick." Then, running to kneel at the old lady's chair, he touched her left hand, saying: "Take heart—trust in God's Providence—rely upon me."
"You believe, then, that you may find her——?"
"Surely: whatever else I may fail in, I could not fail now.... Just one sip of this to oblige me." Jenkins had stolen in, and she drank a little out of the glass that Osborne offered.
"You must think it odd," she said, "that I come to you. I could not give a reason—but I was so distracted and benumbed. I thought of you, and felt impelled——"
"You were right," he said. "I am the proper person to appeal to in this case. Besides, she was here yesterday——"
"Rosalind?"
"The fact is——"
"Oh, she was here? Well, that is something discovered! I did well to come. Yes—you were saying——"