"We will go in at my door, and I will take you directly to Mrs. Pomeroy's room," said he as he helped her up the steps. "We must save you from any exposure if possible." He prepared to open the door as he spoke, but Mrs. Pomeroy saved him the trouble.
"I bring you a stray lamb!" was his greeting. "A repentant wanderer, I hope, since she has come back of her own accord. Let us thank God for all His mercies. A little moment longer and I should have been too late."
[CHAPTER X.]
MR. HUGO picked himself up, his appearance not greatly improved by the mud which decorated his dress and moustache, or by the black eye so generously bestowed upon him by the baggage master, who had again put his hands in his pockets, and was coolly regarding him through the glass door of the station house, much as he might have amused his leisure hours by the contemplation of a stray dog or horse.
His first impulse was to annihilate his late antagonist upon the spot, but a second thought convinced him that the work of annihilation would not be a very easy task, and might be attended with inconvenience to himself; so he contented himself with threatening to procure his immediate discharge from office, a prospect which Mr. Brown seemed to take very coolly, and walked off to his lodgings.
As he himself expressed it, he had still another card to play. Delia was out of his power, and her fortune was lost to him, and he gnashed his teeth with rage, as he thought how Mr. Fletcher had carried her off from under his very face and eyes; but he had still all her letters, and he believed that her father would be very glad to purchase his silence and their destruction, by the sacrifice of a part of that fortune which he had hoped to secure entire. Revolving these schemes in his mind, he retired to rest.
We have already related how Mr. Fletcher and his companion were received by Mrs. Pomeroy at the door. It was no time for reproof or inquiry, for Delia was clearly all but beside herself with excitement and terror, and moreover, it was necessary to have the house quiet before any alarm should be given which might lead to inconvenient questions. It was not till Delia was half led, half carried up stairs into Mrs. Pomeroy's room, her dripping shawl and dress removed, and a restorative administered, that Mrs. Pomeroy spoke.
"My poor, dear child," said she, "What could have induced you to take such a step?"
"I don't know," replied Delia. "I was possessed, I think."
A man's step was heard at the door at the moment, and trembling all over she clung to Mrs. Pomeroy, exclaiming—"Oh, Mrs. Pomeroy, don't let him come near me—he will kill me!"