“So the old Colonel didn’t know!” he remarked. “Young folks are pretty artful!”
It was from Minnie Pickett that Thomas Alvin heard of the disturbance.
Eweretta had held her peace till then. But as her uncle gave Minnie’s version to her and Mrs. Le Breton, she spoke up.
“There was no love affair between them at all,” she said. “Philip told me the truth. I know he told me the truth. Miss Lane treated him as a brother. They had known each other from children. She took her little troubles to him. That was all.”
By the following night it was known all over Hastings that Miss Lane had run away.
It was known, too, that Philip Barrimore had gone away.
Mrs. Hannington, who had been over to Pickett’s Farm, was quite tired out; she had called on everyone she knew to impart the amazing news that Mr. Barrimore and Miss Lane had gone off together!
No reply had come from Philip to the wire his uncle had sent. He had not been to the Savage Club, and he knew nothing. He was too angry to write home, and no one knew his address.
CHAPTER XXXV
PHILIP TAKES DRASTIC MEASURES
Philip, as a matter of fact, had been to his publishers and received a big check due to him, and then had taken a bedroom at the Adelphi Hotel. It was the first time he had stayed there, but it occurred to him that it was conveniently near to the Savage Club—which was probably why Philip did not go there and so get his wire from his Uncle Robert. Philip rarely did the thing he had planned to do.