Gertie told her that as she was so much better and did not need him constantly, he had gone to New York for two or three days, she believed.
“His going was very sudden,” she said, “and I knew nothing of it till just before he went, when he came to me and said it was necessary, and if you asked for him I was to tell you he would be back soon. I should not be surprised if he came to-night.”
Instead of manifesting any disappointment Edith seemed relieved at her husband’s absence, as if it gave her a longer respite; but she little dreamed why he had gone, or of the fearful storm of anguish through which he had passed, and which left its marks upon him so plainly, that when at the close of the third day he came back, Gertie, who met him first in the hall, started in surprise, and asked what was the matter.
“Nothing, only tired; how is Mrs. Schuyler?” he said, and his voice sounded husky and unnatural, while it seemed to Gertie as if he stooped and tottered like an old man as he went slowly up the stairs, holding to the banisters and pausing once as if to rest.
He did not go straight to Edith’s room, but into his library, and Gertie took him some biscuits and a glass of wine, for she was frightened at his weakness and exhaustion. He thanked her for her thoughtfulness, and said, with a sickly kind of smile:
“I think I do need something. I have scarcely tasted food since I left home. How many days ago is that, Gertie?”
His manner was strange, and Gertie stayed with him and made him drink the wine, and eat a cracker, and then watched him curiously as he went down the hall to Edith’s room, which he entered and shut the door.
CHAPTER LIII.
COLONEL SCHUYLER AND THE SECRET.
He knew it now in part, and the knowledge of it had aged him as ten years of ordinary life could not have done, making him feel old and worn and bewildered, and uncertain whether it really were himself upon whom this blow had fallen. And it had come to him thus: Mrs. Barrett had brought her grandson a fanciful whistle, of which he was very fond, and which, since Edith’s illness, could not be found.