“I left it there on purpose,” he answered quietly and reassuringly. “Now don’t in any way try to alter my plans. I have thought more in the last half-hour than I ever did in all the rest of my life. Everything is provided for. At this time tomorrow night you and the children will be safe on the continent. What did you do with that other dress?”
“Ugh,” she shuddered; “while I was taking it off baby came running into the room and wanted to touch the horrible spots. I wrapped the accursed thing up in stout paper and gave it to Miss Mettleby. Why, you are not afraid that she—but no. Well, I told her it was a surprise for you, and she will hide it somewhere while we are at dinner, and tell me after.”
“That was a wise move,” said Fair. “And now, Janet, a brave heart, old girl, and this beastly dinner will be over. What a trump you are!”
“Trust me,” she replied, looking with infinite loyalty at the man who had stood for so much so strangely much in her torn and beaten life. “Trust me. But, Maxwell, when the end comes, as it most surely will, you will explain how it came to be done—you will tell them how his crimes deserved this. For the children’s sake you won’t be foolish and sacrifice yourself to protect others? Oh, promise me, promise me.”
“Poor little woman!” he answered, with great tenderness. “Yes, yes, all shall be told. Hush! I hear them on the stairs. Yes, they are coming.”
When Baxter with much ceremony threw open the door of the library, Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell Fair stood there radiantly cordial and unruffled to welcome the three or four intimate friends who were dining with them.
“Sir Nelson and Lady Poynter, Mrs. March, Mr. Travers, Mr. Allyne,” solemnly announced Baxter at the door, and these several ladies and gentlemen, all chatting and beaming, hurried forward to pay their respects to the most talked of man in London and his gracious and handsome wife.
CHAPTER IV
“My dear Lady Poynter, it was so good of you and Sir Nelson to honor us—Mrs. March, so glad,” said Mrs. Fair, advancing to greet them.
“Good evening, good evening, everybody,” blustered old Sir Nelson, with a red face and a warm heart. “And, Fair, my lad, I see that those shares that you put me into behaved rather well today. You must have made a rather neat turn in them. Come, now, how was it?”