The echo of his laughter drove her down the passage.
Outside the kitchen door she paused. The firelight, the call of cheerful voices beckoned her. From the back room came the shouted chorus of a song.
"If you were the only girl in the world
And I were the only boy."
The desire to tell some one, to find a sane and comforting adviser in this world gone mad, urged her almost irresistibly. She would go and tell Mrs. Todd. She would tell Mat. They would help her to look for Connie.
"Nothing else would matter in this world to-day,
We would go on loving in the same old way."
She laid her hand upon the latch of the door.
If she told, they would all follow her. They would all know what had happened to Connie. They would all know what Connie had done.
She had to tell. She could not bear alone this dreadful burden of responsibility.