“Oh, God!” said Clare. She moaned out the words in a pitiful way.
“You have only to slip down one flight of stairs and steal up another, and you will find me at the door with a welcome. It will need just a little care to escape from your prison. You must slip on your hat and cloak as though you were going round to church, and then come to me, to me, Clare! Only a wall will divide you from this flat, but you will be a world away. For you will have escaped from this upholstered cage into a little world of liberty. Into a little world of love, Clare. Say you will come!”
“Oh, God!” moaned Clare.
“You will come?”
“Are you the Devil that you tempt me?” said Clare.
Gerald gave a triumphant little laugh.
“You will come! Clare, my sweetheart, I know you will come, for your spirit is ready for me.”
As he spoke these words there was the sound of a bell ringing through the flat, and the noise of it struck terror into Clare Heywood.
“Go away,” she whispered. “For God’s sake go! Some one is ringing.”
“I will cross the bar again,” said Bradshaw. “But I shall be waiting at the door. You will not be very long, little one?”