And then she was gone, and he was left standing a moment, bewildered.
Eleven? What had he to do?
Then he remembered his pair, and that he had promised to call for Letty at a certain house, and take her on to a late ball. The evening, in fact, instead of ending, was just beginning. He could have laughed, as he got back into his cab.
* * * * *
Meanwhile Marcella had sped through the outer hall into the inner, where one solitary light, still burning, made a rather desolate dark-in-light through the broad, pillared space. A door opened at the farther side.
"Aldous!"
"You!"
He came out, and she flew to him. He felt her trembling as she touched him. In ten words she told him something of what had happened. Then he saw the bandage round her temple. His countenance fell. She knew that he turned white, and loved him for it. How few things had power to move him so!
He wanted to lead her back into his library, where he was at work. But she resisted.
"Let me go up to Annette," she said. "The little wound—oh! it is not much, I know it is not much—ought to be properly seen to. We will do it between us in a moment. Then come—I will send her down for you. I want to tell you."