"But," said Mr. Paulton, still keeping the hand she had given him, "do you not think you had better wait a little, until evening, even if no longer?"
"I am greatly obliged to you. But what is to be gained by delay? Nothing."
"Well, but where do you propose going? What hotel do you intend staying at?"
"I know one," she answered, wearily, as she withdrew her hand gently from his. "It does not matter which or where."
"But you are not taking anything with you! You cannot go merely as you are!"
"I fear I must. I cannot take anything out of that awful house--no, never"--with a shudder. "All the things that are now there are like my dead husband--dead to me for ever. I can get what I need in London."
"At all events, you must not go alone. You must allow some one to escort you. I am certain my son would be delighted to take you wherever you may wish to go."
"It would give me great pleasure," said Alfred eagerly.
"You are both, I know, too good and kind to mistake for ungraciousness the refusal which I must give to your offer. I have no alternative but to go alone."
"Mrs. Davenport," said Pringle, "I am going to town at once. May I hope you will allow me to see you as far as either Ludgate Hill or Victoria? I am afraid that my want of caution when speaking to you a few minutes ago upstairs may have betrayed me into saying or implying more than I really should. We could talk a little more on the way in."