“You mustn’t see Gerard,” she said, with a little break in her voice. “I think it would be best if you did not see me, either. What is the good of words to thank me? We understand each other too well to need them. Couldn’t you go away for a holiday somewhere? It would be the best for all of us. You mustn’t be hurt—indeed, you mustn’t. But you will do what I ask you?”
“Anything in the wide world. In fact, I am going abroad with Cahusac. I was only waiting until I had seen you. But I don’t understand——”
He stopped, regarded her anxiously. In spite of the falling darkness, he could see that she looked thoroughly ill.
“I may as well tell you at once,” she said, with quiet abruptness, moving a step nearer to him and laying her fingers on the bicycle handle. “You are making the same mistake as I did—reckoning on Gerard’s acquiescence. He is unspeakably angry. We have quarrelled over it. That is why I didn’t send for you. If you could do anything, I should ask you. But it is a matter solely concerning the two of us. Time will set it right.”
She spoke so quietly that he never suspected the truth. On the other hand, he could well realise that, Gerard not consenting, the public sacrifice of his honour should arouse his furious indignation. His conception of the breach between Irene and Gerard was sufficient in itself to keep him speechless with pain and remorse.
“It wasn’t your fault, dear Hugh,” she said, at length, comfortingly. “And don’t think I regret what I did. Gerard will see it in the same light as myself some day.”
“But now—to cause this division between you—I wish I had pleaded guilty. It would have settled everything at once.”
The words fell somewhat incoherently. He writhed under a sense of impotence. How could he comfort or reassure her? His wits floundered. Suddenly they came into sharp contact with an idea. Why was she walking away from the house at this hour of the evening? He put the question.
“I am staying with my aunt, in Redcliffe Gardens,” she replied, calmly. “It was best to avoid the tension at home.”
“I cannot blame. Gerard,” said Hugh, in a low voice. “And yet, I thought——”