Naturally. The Case was the same.
"I hadn't very much talk with her. Of course, I asked her how Joan was——"
Yes, Joan was in the Case too.
"And she told me she'd seen Dawdy the night before. Dawdy was all a bundle of nerves, and Mrs. Esdaile put her to bed. She told me that if she were me she'd go round there at once and tell her—tell her——"
But here he broke down suddenly and completely. He sank on the edge of his bed and buried his face in his hands. He shook with sobs.
"Oh," he broke out uncontrollably, "it's all that beast—that beast Cunningham——"
"Oh no," I thought; "it wasn't Cunningham; it was the Case."
"You don't know the life that brute led her," he went on. "Drunken blackguard—women all over the place—and Dawdy, Dawdy at home! I hope he's in hell! Killed her heart he did. Can you blame her for not wanting to chance it again? I hardly had the heart to beg her, I was so broken up. She admitted she'd nothing against me. She just wanted to be right away from all men. So I pay for that beast. Somebody always has to pay, I expect. If only I'd seen her before he did——"
Presently he was better. He got up and began to move about again. "Sorry," he said shortly. "But what would you do?"
"Well, I should shave for one thing," I said quietly. "And for another, I don't think I'd make up my mind that everything was entirely hopeless. You never know what'll happen. It may be all right presently."