Ah! I would find him and face him. I would clutch his throat and force the truth from his lips.
And if he had betrayed me—if he had exercised any evil influence over Phrida—then, by heaven! I would take his life!
Mallock bustled in the next moment, and sinking upon her knees began to apply restoratives.
"Tell your mistress that I will return after luncheon, if she will see me," I said.
"Yes, sir."
"And—and tell her, Mallock, to remain calm until I see her. Will you?"
"Yes, sir," answered the maid, and then I went out into the hall, struggled into my overcoat, and left the house.
Out in Cromwell Road the scene, grey, dull and dismal, was, alas! in accord with my own feelings.
The blow I had feared had fallen. The terrible suspicion I had held from that moment when, upon the stairs at Harrington Gardens, I had smelt that sweet, unusual perfume and heard the jingle of golden bangles, had been proved.
She had actually admitted her presence there—with the man I had believed to be my friend, the man, whom, up to the present, I had sought to shield and protect!