As they passed beneath a street-lamp, I had a good view of them. It was Thelma walking with old Doctor Feng!
I halted amazed, and instinctively drew back into the shadow of a hedge which formed the boundary of a garden. They were walking engrossed in conversation, in the direction of Mrs. Shaylor’s house.
I had no idea that they were on terms of friendship, and their apparently clandestine meeting was a complete surprise to me. Feng was bending to her, talking earnestly in an undertone, while she appeared to be listening attentively.
There flashed across my memory a moment in Mürren when I had seen the Doctor and Ruthen walking together in secret up a narrow snow-piled lane, though we all believed they were strangers. What could it possibly mean?
I allowed the pair to go ahead of me, following them at a distance and watching.
I thought I heard the girl cry “No! No!” in a distressed tone. But it might have been merely my fancy.
They walked together very slowly until they reached the corner of Bedford Avenue. Here they halted, and again I drew back into the shadow. From where I stood I could see them very plainly, for a lamp shone full upon them. No other person was in the vicinity. I could plainly see old Feng’s face and beard as he spoke evidently in deep earnest, while Thelma, wrapped in her smart squirrel coat and wearing the little fur toque which I had admired so much, stood listening.
Suddenly she appeared to utter some appeal. But the old man shook his head relentlessly. He had apparently told her something which had staggered her.
I watched, scarcely daring to draw breath, in a mist of uncertainty, jealousy and dread.
How long they stood there I could not say, but it seemed a long time. I was utterly amazed at the sight of Thelma keeping what was clearly a secret appointment with this old fellow who had often warned me against a dangerous friendship. Were both of them, I wondered, in some plot to delude and play with me. Was Thelma, after all, in league with her husband and his mysterious friends. Was old Feng for some sinister reason a member of the same queer coterie?