“Of tragedy?” she cried. “What do you mean?”
“Ella is already engaged to be married.”
“Engaged?” she cried. “Why, I thought she was to be yours? I was congratulating you both!”
“No,” I answered, my heart sinking. “Though we have come together again after that long blank in both our lives, we are yet held apart by a cruel circumstance. She is already engaged to be married to another man.”
“But she will break it, never fear. Ella loves you—you can’t doubt that.”
“I know. I know that. But it is an engagement she cannot break. She will be that man’s wife in a month.”
“You absolutely amaze me. She told me nothing of this, but on the contrary led me to believe that she was still free, and that you were to be her affianced husband.”
“There is some reason—some secret reason why I cannot be,” I said. “It was to discuss this point with you that I have travelled from London. I must ask you to forgive me, Miss Miller, for troubling you with my private affairs, but you are, you know, Ella’s most intimate and most devoted friend.”
“You are not troubling me in the least,” my companion declared. “We are friends, you and I, and if I can help you, I will with pleasure do so.”
“Then I want to ask you a few questions,” I said eagerly. “First, tell me how long you have known Mr Gordon-Wright?”