“Come, Ernest, the machine is waiting! Let us fly! Fly to the other end of the world!”
Half dazed with the suddenness of the turn things were taking, he followed her lead, and while the others rushed upstairs, he and Cora sprang into the limousine and were driven to the railway station.
The secret of the locked room was no longer a secret.
A score of people followed the eager footsteps of the little lads upstairs to the sad sight they had encountered on opening the door.
There lay sweet Jessie, wan, pale, terribly emaciated, and still as death on the low couch—a sight that brought cries of grief and horror from women’s lips, and tears to the eyes of men.
Fortunately the old family physician was in the company.
It looked like death, but he would not pronounce it so. He remembered what a terrible mistake he had made over Jessie before.
He knelt by her side, doing all he could to restore life, and all the while he was inwardly praying:
“God help me! Give back her beautiful life to us!”
And all the time the anguished mother and father, the distracted lover, the interested friends, were echoing the prayer in their hearts.