17
I don't want to give you too much of the operatives' reports. I tell
myself it is not to be expected anybody would have the same absorbing
interest that I have in all the ramifications of the case. So I will
go on with my story in the ordinary way.
After the catastrophe, it will be remembered, Miss Hamerton and Sadie
had gone into the country to a little retreat I chose for them. After
a day or two Sadie, seeing that Miss Hamerton could be left alone,
would in fact be better alone, returned, and took up her work on the
case as has been seen. Later, that is about the first of June, Miss
Hamerton was so far recovered as to be able to go to Southampton, and
open her cottage for the season. Now, towards the end of the month, I
learned that she had come to town for a few days to talk over next
season's plans with her manager. All of which was encouraging as far
as her health and spirits were concerned. But thinking of my friend
Roland, I was not anxious to see her recover too quickly. I had kept
my promise to him, and Miss Hamerton was unaware that I was still busy
on her case.
I was shy about going to see her. My feeling was, considering her
position and mine, that if she wished to keep up the connection she
ought to give me some sign. I confess I was a little hurt that I had
not received any.
One day as I was returning to the office after lunch I met her
strolling up the avenue with Mount. When I caught sight of her the
whole street brightened for me with her loveliness. I watched her
coming for half a block before she saw me. She seemed well; she had a
good colour, and her face was vivacious--more vivacious than it used to
be, a little too vivacious. She seemed to have become aware of the
necessity of vivacity. When she laughed her eyes were sombre.
She was dressed in a strange bright blue--few women could have carried
off that dazzling colour so well, with coral red at her girdle and on
her hat. She walked through the crowd with the beautiful
unconsciousness that was part of her stage training. The staring, the
whispering, the craning of necks neither troubled nor pleased her.
Alfred Mount, who was no child in the world, could not quite hide his
pride at being seen with her. He, too, was gorgeously arrayed, a
little too well-dressed for a man of his age. But I had to grant his
youthful air, and good looks.