And as the tears again rose in her eyes she turned and went out.
I heard Simes saluting her a moment later, then the outer door closed, and I sat motionless, staring before me fixedly. I had, during that afternoon, awakened to the fact that I loved her; but it was, alas! too late. Another had supplanted me in her affections.
She had left me hopeless, crushed, grief-stricken, and desolate.
Next day passed drearily, but on the next I sent Simes along to Madame Gabrielle’s with a note in which I asked Muriel to see me again, making an appointment to meet her at Frascati’s that evening. “Let me see you once more,” I wrote, “if for the last time. Do not refuse me, for I think always of you.”
In half an hour my man returned, and by his face I knew that something unusual had occurred.
He had my note still in his hand.
“Well,” I said inquiringly, “have you brought an answer?”
“Miss Moore is no longer there, sir,” he answered, handing me back the note.
“Not there?” I exclaimed, surprised.
“No, sir. I saw the head saleswoman, and she told me that the young lady was not now in their employ.”