Of course, inclination conquered prudence and I went. I found that she and her mother lived in a pretty red-roofed, red-brick detached house, with high gables, and a small garden in front. It stood in Bedford Avenue, close to the Sackville Hotel and facing the sea.
Mrs. Shaylor, a pleasant, grey-haired woman of a very refined type, greeted me warmly and thanked me cordially for what I had done for her daughter in Mürren, while Thelma expressed her delight at seeing me again.
I got a chance during the morning of speaking to Mrs. Shaylor alone and asked her if Thelma had heard anything more of her husband.
“Not a word,” was Mrs. Shaylor’s reply. “It is a most disastrous affair for her, poor girl. The suspense and anxiety are killing her.”
“She does not look so well,” I replied. I had, in fact, been struck by the change in the girl. She was paler and thinner and it was evident the strain was telling on her rather heavily.
“I understand you did not know very much of Mr. Audley,” I said.
“Very little indeed, unfortunately,” was Mrs. Shaylor’s reply. “Thelma met him when she was staying with her aunt at the Majestic at Harrogate, and they became friendly. He appeared to have considerable means for he gave Thelma some very beautiful jewelry. He came down here once, saw me, and asked if he might marry her. He told me certain things about his relations in India, and she seemed so entirely devoted to him that I gave my consent to their marriage in three months. But, judge my surprise when a fortnight later they were married secretly and left next day for Switzerland for their honeymoon.”
“Then you really know very little of him, Mrs. Shaylor?” I asked.
“Very little indeed. It was a most foolish and ill-advised marriage. He seems to have lied to her here and then deserted her.”
“I must say I liked what I saw of him,” I said, “and I wonder whether we are right in thinking that he really deserted her in the ordinary meaning of the word. It looks like it, of course, but it has occurred to me, though I have only very slight grounds to go on, that he is being kept away from her by some influence at which we cannot guess. He really seemed devoted to her and genuinely sorry to have to leave her.”