“Where did she go?”
“I don't know. I got her a taxicab, and she only took one bag. I went right off to the housekeeper and told her I wouldn't stay, and they could send my money after me.”
“Did you notice the number of the taxicab?”
“I never thought of it.”
He saw it all with terrible distinctness, The man was Akers, of course. Then, if she had left her home rather than give him up, she was really in love with him. He had too much common sense to believe for a moment that she had fled to Louis Akers' protection, however. That was the last thing she would do. She would have gone to a hotel, or to the Doyle house.
“She shouldn't have left home, Ellen.”
“They drove her out, I tell you,” Ellen cried, irritably. “At least that's what it amounted to. There are things no high-minded girl will stand. Can you lend me some money, Willy?”
He felt in his pocket, producing a handful of loose money.
“Of course you can have all I've got,” he said. “But you must not go to-night, Miss Ellen. It's too late. I'll give you my room and go in with Dan Boyd.”
And he prevailed over her protests, in the end. It was not until he saw her settled there, hiding her sense of strangeness under an impassive mask, that he went downstairs again and took his hat from its hook.