“Sheila—” he said, and stopped.
“Well, what about her?” said Ingram, keeping quite calm, but with wild fancies about some terrible accident almost stopping the pulsations of his heart.
“Sheila has gone away.”
Ingram did not seem to understand.
“Sheila has gone away, Ingram,” said Lavender, in an excited way. “You don’t know anything about it? You don’t know where she has gone? What am I to do, Ingram? How am I to find her? Good God! don’t you understand what I tell you? And now it is past midnight, and my poor girl may be wandering about the streets!”
He was walking up and down the room, paying almost no attention, in his excitement, to the small, sallow-faced man who stood quite quiet, a trifle afraid, perhaps, but with his heart full of a blaze of anger.
“She has gone away from your house?” he said, slowly. “What made her do that?”
“I did,” said Lavender, in a hurried way. “I have acted like a brute to her—that is true enough. You needn’t say anything to me, Ingram; I feel myself far more guilty than anything you could say. You may heap reproaches on me afterward, but tell me, Ingram, what am I to do? You know what a proud spirit she has; who can tell what she might do? She wouldn’t go home—she would be too proud. She may have gone and drowned herself.”
“If you don’t control yourself and tell me what has happened, how am I to help you?” said Ingram, stiffly, and yet disposed somehow—perhaps for the sake of Sheila, perhaps because he saw that the young man’s self-embarrassment and distress were genuine enough not to be too rough with him.
“Well, you know, Mairi—” said Lavender, still walking up and down the room in an excited way. “Sheila had got the girl up here without telling me; some friends of mine were coming home to luncheon; we had some disagreement about Mairi being present, and then Sheila said something about not remaining in the house if Mairi did not; something of that sort. I don’t know what it was, but I know it was all my fault, and if she has been driven from the house I did it; that is true enough. And where do you think she has gone, Ingram? If I could only see her for three minutes I would explain everything; I would tell her how sorry I am for everything that has happened, and she would see, when she went back, how everything would be right again. I had no idea that she would go away. It was mere peevishness that made me object to Mairi meeting those people; and I had no idea that Sheila would take it so much to heart. Now tell me what you think should be done, Ingram. All I want is to see her just for three minutes to tell her it was all a mistake and that she will never have to fear anything like that again.”