"Oh, I am glad!" A glow irradiated her wistful face. "Pansy promised to write; I thought she could not have forgotten." There was a break in her voice as she mentioned her little sister. "When does the post go out?" she went on.
"Very inconveniently, the man who brings the bag also takes it back, so that if you are going to write, you must have your letter ready before you receive the one you expect. Will you like to write it now? You will find things on the table."
He turned, went back into his own room, and closed the communicating door.
Left alone, her first act was to steal across the floor to the other exit, and turn the handle. It was locked, and the key had been taken out.
The knowledge that she was actually a prisoner came to her with a shock of horror. What would happen to her, what was she to expect in this house of mysterious terror? She dare not give way, however. No matter what she suffered, Pansy must know nothing of it—Tony must know nothing. She must write a letter which should reassure them; and, if once she yielded to the creeping, nameless horror which assailed her, this would be impossible.
Rallying her courage, she fought the sobs which rose in her throat, and sat down to the writing-table.
She had just sealed and stamped her letter, and was wondering whether she dare lie down upon the sofa and rest, when Gaunt came in, his letters for the post and the packet for the jeweller in his hand. He went up to the place she had just vacated, laid down what he carried, and took up the letter which she had left lying on the blotter.
"Shouldn't have sealed it until I had read it," he remarked coolly, as he broke the envelope open.
Virginia sprang to her feet, and her angry cry of "Oh, how can you?" convinced him that he was on the right track at last. He was going to hear the truth, as she had written it to those with whom she knew no reserve. "One of my rules," said he, "is to read all the letters you write."
"You——" Half in shame, half in rage she broke off, she stifled the word upon her tongue. Drawing back, mistress of herself, she remarked scornfully: "I might have thought. People who break vows will not respect seals."