“Get a taxi, Dan! Catch her, don’t let her go! I’ll subpœna her, if necessary. Stop her!”
Daniel, who had turned a startled face on his father, nodded at the judge.
“’Phone mother, father,” he said quietly. “It isn’t fair to keep her waiting even ten minutes. I’ll go out there at once.”
As he spoke, he whistled for a passing taxi. He heard his father’s shaking voice at the phone as he went out.
The cab went off at top speed, and Daniel sank back in the corner, resting his head against the stiff old cushion. He felt a great weariness, a sensation of defeat and despair. He had fought hard for an indictment for manslaughter, but had succeeded in getting a second degree of murder only by the most strenuous effort and the appeal of Leigh’s obvious youth. Daniel knew that they had a hard fight before them, and he doubted the boy’s nerve. The whole thing was hideous to him.
He looked out with dull eyes, aware of the swift passing of the street corners. The taxi swung into the church lane with a shriek of its warning horn, and Daniel looked around at the church door, thinking of Virginia.
The next moment he saw her. The old wagonette and the two fat horses appeared, progressing slowly toward town. Colonel Denbigh and his granddaughter were sitting in the vehicle, facing each other on the two long seats.
Virginia saw Daniel and waved to him. He knew that they had the news, for the colonel was reading an extra, and Virginia’s face was full of it. She seemed to fling him a message of sympathy and courage and faith. Daniel felt it. It roused him. He felt suddenly the impulse of the fighter, and he shut his teeth on it. He must win, he would win!
He was still feeling it when the taxi stopped abruptly at the Carter gate and the chauffeur got down to collect his fare. Daniel paid it absently, aware that the man was staring at the figure that he saw on the piazza.
In the midst of a pile of luggage stood Fanchon. She was dressed for the street, and wore a hat and a fashionable veil that made a singular figure on the side of her pale cheek, like the tail of a black dragon. She was leaning against a trunk that stood on end, her dark eyes fixed gloomily on her approaching brother-in-law.