Her throat ached with the impulse to sob out to him that she was frightened—that she did not wish for him to leave her there alone.
But she was ashamed of her weakness; she would not confess it to her bright, handsome lover.
In a low, tremulous voice, and with a sad little smile on her quivering red lips, she bade him go.
"It is only for a little while, my own little love!" he whispered; but her heart sunk heavily with fear and dread. He found her a secluded seat in a dim corner. "You can sit here quietly and unobserved until I return," he said, and stole a parting kiss from the sweet red lips that smiled at him with such pathetic love.
Then he was gone, and she no longer tried to check her bursting sobs. Leaning far back in the corner, her little cobwebby handkerchief was soon drenched with her raining tears.
She told herself that he would soon return and laugh at her for being such a great baby, but she could not help it. A terrible presentiment of coming evil weighed down her spirits.
Ralph Chainey entered a cab and was driven rapidly to his hotel. He explained that business of great importance called him in haste to Washington, but that he would return the next day in time for the evening performance, "Beau Brummel."
Then he drove as fast as possible back to the depot, where his little darling, as he called her in his fond thoughts, was impatiently awaiting his return.
"My little darling, so soon to be my adored wife," he murmured, as he hurried eagerly into the waiting-room, where the second great shock of his life awaited him.