“I foiled the wretch. I got away just in time, and no doubt he thinks me still at my lodgings, unless, indeed, he attempted an interview with me last night,” she told herself, and she was inclined from past experience to believe the latter.
But Prince Gonzaga was more wary now than in those past days, when he had listened to the counsels of Belva Platt. He had not forgotten the night when he had taken Fair by storm, as it were, and then been chased out of the house by the tenement people. He had no mind to repeat that dismal experience.
It was quite true that the clever detective had identified Mrs. Karrick with Fair, the prince’s missing wife, but no attempt had been made to molest her that night. It was decided that he should go boldly to the factory next morning and claim his wife.
“If you will go with me to the factory first, I will go to market with you as soon as I get excused,” Waverley Osborne said to his wife, when they reached the street.
She agreed to do so, and at that moment Mrs. Jones, the forewoman, came hurrying past the corner, but stopped abruptly at sight of Sadie.
“Oh, my dear, how glad I am to see you! I believe I’m late already, but I must stop and have a little chat with you,” she exclaimed affably.
“Then I’ll go on and be back in ten minutes, dear,” said Waverley Osborne, smiling at his wife and hurrying away, followed by her anxious glance.
It was a beautiful day in December, clear and cold; but Sadie was warmly wrapped from the weather. In spite of that, she shivered and sighed as she watched Waverley’s tall, erect form hurrying down the square. A horror had been upon her ever since last night, when Waverley had told her of the unsafe condition of the factory.
“Oh, Mrs. Jones, how can you bear to enter that condemned building again? Indeed, it is not safe. I think everybody ought to quit work until they move,” she exclaimed nervously.
A tall form, clad in costly silk and fur, brushed past, going down to the factory. At sight of the two women she stopped, and the cold sunlight flashed on her blondined hair and lighted up her pale-blue eyes that shone with a malevolent light as they rested on Sadie, whom she hated with a jealous fury.