“And you start, no doubt, on your wedding trip afterwards?”
“That is to say,” returned the young man, “I take to my heels, I go away to hide myself, also I go in order to try and get my wife away from the deplorable associations connected with her family and relations.”
As he reached the door Tom Bob turned for a last good-bye to his host: “As a matter of fact,” he questioned, “do you love her?”
“No!” replied the rich Englishman gloomily.
But, modifying his statement and blushing to the roots of his hair, he added:
“Still, I am bound to confess, there is something makes her not indifferent to me.”
Tom Bob raised his hand as if to invoke heaven, and in a thrilling voice:
“The child, perhaps ...” he suggested.
“Yes, that is it,” Ascott agreed, and hurrying over the good-byes, he returned to his working-table, while the detective took his departure.
* * * * * *