My Darling Hugh,
Where have you hidden yourself all this time? I have enquired everywhere, but no one knows anything about you. I am in such dreadful trouble, I must see you at once. It is too awful. My husband knows all about us. When he came back from Germany the servants told him I had been away, and he found that we had been stopping at that hotel. He put a lawyer on the track, and discovered everything. Oh! What are we to do! You must come and advise me, and you will stand by me won’t you? You know how much I love you, and you know you made me unfaithful to my husband. You will not leave me now? He is getting a divorce and what am I to do? I am staying with my mother, as he will not have me. Do come to me.
Your broken-hearted
Winnie
There were tear stains, and corrections, and crosses at the end. The letter was unfair and gross, and as Hugh looked up from reading it, he contrasted in his mind the fair young girl, now throwing little stones over the hedge to see them drop far below, and the flamboyant beauty of the other, to whom now he must go, for so the twisted honour of his race would have it.
“Come, Daphne, let us go back. It is getting late,” he said, but there was a solemn note in his voice, which made her ask. “Have you had bad news?”
“Oh no, just the ordinary worries, but it will probably mean I shall have to go to England. Business affairs you know, but don’t trouble, little girl, I shall not be away from you for long.”
A shadow crossed her lovely face. It was the first separation.
“Can’t I come too? I would love to see England properly, London and the big cities.”
“I am afraid not this time, and besides you would hate the winter. I must get a villa for you, and you can make everything ready for me when I come back. It will be quite exciting for you, furnishing.”
And so it was arranged. Everything had to be done in a hurry, but then he was used to that. He bought a charming little Villa at Murano, and obtained servants for her, while she was to stay in Venice till she had furnished it. On the last night she was sad.
“Come back soon,” she said “I shall be so lonely without you, and …” she stopped.
He was tender with her, but there was a hunted look in his eyes. He could see only one way out of the mess, and that he could not tell her.