At nine o'clock that same evening Jim Herrick, alone in his shabby yet
delightful little sitting-room, was roused from his contemplation of an
etching he had picked up in town that day by a deep-throated bark from
Olga. She had been lying in the hall; and doubtless her sharp ears had
heard some approaching footstep which to his duller human hearing was
inaudible.
Eva was upstairs, trying on some finery she had purchased in London; and
after waiting a moment Herrick went into the hall to investigate.
Someone was knocking now on the door, thereby rousing Olga's wrath; and
Herrick held her firmly by the collar as he went to answer the summons.
On the doorstep, an indistinct figure in the fog, stood a young man, and
on seeing Herrick he began at once to unfold his errand.
"Mr. Herrick, beg pardon, sir; master's sent me over to ask if Mrs. Rose
is here."
"Mrs. Rose? Are you from Greenriver?"
"Yes, sir. I'm Andrews, sir, and we're all a bit anxious about the
mistress. She wasn't at home for dinner, and no one saw her go out."
"Comes inside a minute." The man obeying, Herrick closed the door and,
still holding Olga's collar, led the way to the sitting-room.
"Now, tell me, as shortly as possible, why you thought Mrs. Rose might
be here?"
"It was Kate's idea, sir--the parlourmaid. When Mrs. Ross didn't come
down to dinner she thought as perhaps she'd come over here. I thought it
weren't likely on account of the fog, but we couldn't think of anywhere
else for Mrs. Rose to be."
"Your master is at home?"
"Yes, sir, got in about seven. He was shut up in his room--the
lib'ry--till nearly dinner-time, and then he waited and waited for the
mistress to come down--and when she didn't come he got fidgety and sent
Kate upstairs."
"And Kate found no one?"
"No, sir. Only the dog--Jock--lying curled up in the very middle of the
bed--a thing he's never been known to do before, sir."
"Mrs. Rose has not been here," said Herrick. "But just wait a moment. I
will ask my wife if she expected Mrs. Rose."
He went out of the room, and found Eva coming down the short flight of
stairs from the upper floor.
"What's the matter, Jim? Who is the man in there?"
"It is the man-servant from Greenriver asking if Mrs. Rose has been
here. You did not expect her, did you, Eva?"
"Oh, no." She spoke calmly. "We were to meet to-morrow morning, but we
had no appointment for to-night."
"I see. Odd where she can have got to." Herrick frowned thoughtfully.
"You can't give me any clue to her movements, Eva? You don't remember
hearing her say anything about to-night?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," said Eva, with apparent sincerity, and
Herrick turned away without asking any other question.
Re-entering the room he quietly told the waiting Andrews that nothing
had been seen of Mrs. Rose, nor had she been expected on that particular
evening; and the young man thanked him dejectedly and moved to the door.
"It's a wretched night," said Herrick. "Won't you have a glass of
something before you go?"
Andrews thanked him, but declined; and seeing he was anxious to be gone,
Herrick did not press him, but let him depart without more ado.
He turned again into the sitting-room, meditating on this extraordinary
disappearance; and a minute later his wife joined him, eager to hear the
reason of Andrews' quest.
She came into the room wearing a satin kimono she had bought that day,
her curly golden hair bound with a broad pink ribbon, her small, narrow
foot thrust into satin slippers of the same hue.
At first sight it might have been a schoolgirl who stood there in the
doorway. A second glance would have shown, to an acute observer, faint
lines on brow and cheek, an indefinable hardness and sharpness of
outline which destroyed the semblance of youth; and in its place gave an
air of cynical maturity, which, reckoning by actual length of years, was
as deceptive as the former illusion.
"Well?" She came further into the room and spoke interrogatively.
"Well?" Herrick turned to face her. "Mrs. Rose's disappearance is rather
remarkable, don't you think?"
"Very." For the life of him Herrick could not fathom her tone. "But
since Toni is a free agent and not a slave, I expect she's gone out on
business of her own."
"Queer time for business--nine o'clock on a foggy night," Herrick
reminded her quietly.
"Well, I daresay she got fed up with the house--and the weather--and
went off to London for a spree." Eva laughed rather hardly. "A theatre
would be a blessed relief after the dulness of this place."
"She would not be likely to go alone."
"Oh, I daresay she would pick up some man to go with."
"Don't speak like that, Eva, please. Mrs. Rose is not the sort of girl
to 'pick up' anybody."
"Oh, isn't she?" Eva laughed again. "Your precious Toni isn't a saint,
you know. Because her husband is a fool and neglects her, that doesn't
say Toni is too meek and mild to have friends of her own."
Herrick turned to her angrily.
"Look here, Eva, I won't have you insinuating such things. Mrs. Rose may
not be a saint--I never met one, by the way--but she is a thoroughly
straight girl; and any friends she might make would be lucky fellows, I
can tell you."
Eva smiled rather scornfully.
"Even you are taken in by her big eyes and her quiet ways. Well, you'll
all of you get a surprise one of these days, when you find that Toni is
as wide-awake as anybody else, and knows a thing or two you don't
suspect her of."
"Eva, you are talking nonsense, and you know it." Herrick was seriously
annoyed. "I imagined--foolishly--that you were a friend of Toni Rose;
and it never entered my head you would say spiteful things of this sort
about her."
He broke off.
"Unless----" He hesitated, his eyes full of a vague trouble.
"Well? Unless--what?"
"Oh, but that's absurd." He pulled himself together and spoke
decisively. "I was going to say, unless you had some reason for speaking
so; unless you knew something we don't know--and of course you don't."
"Of course not." This time the mockery in her tone was perceptible; and
Herrick questioned her hastily.
"Eva, what do you mean? Do you know anything which would throw a light
on Mrs. Rose's disappearance?"
But Eva had turned sulky and would say nothing more. After one or two
vain attempts to induce her to speak, therefore, Herrick abandoned the
idea; and Eva withdrew with a malicious little smile on her lips which
rendered her husband still more uneasy.
He wandered restlessly about his small domain, puzzling his head as to
what could have happened to Toni. He had not seen her often of late.
Indeed, he had fancied once or twice that she was avoiding him; and he
was sorry, for the girl had made an instant claim upon his sympathies,
and he had often meditated over her chances of turning her marriage into
a success.
Somehow he had a presentiment of evil. Something seemed to tell him that
Toni's flight was premeditated, that she had fled from her home
secretly, with the intention of leaving her husband for ever; and
although he told himself that the idea was monstrous, grotesque, he
could not shake it off.
Doubtless there were a dozen explanations. Perhaps she had gone for a
little stroll, and had lost her way in the fog. She might have dropped
in at some house in the neighbourhood, and, talking, let the hours slip
by. Ten chances to one, she was even now safe at home; and it was absurd
to worry about her. And yet----
And yet there _were_ other possibilities. In the fog it would be easy
indeed to miss one's road--with tragic results. One false step off the
towing-path, for instance, and the river, dark and silent, would flow on
its way, carrying with it a burden hardly more animated, yet a hundred
times more precious, than the sticks and leaves which floated down with
the current....
Suddenly Herrick sprang up, unable to bear this haunted solitude any
longer. He felt as though he must go forth to make inquiries for
himself, to ascertain whether Toni had returned or no, whether all
possible measures had been taken for her safety.
Surely the people at Greenriver would not take his visit amiss? Seeing
that his wife and Mrs. Rose were known to be friends, it was only
natural that Mrs. Herrick should be anxious; and in any case he could
bear this inaction no longer.
Going into the hall he selected an overcoat and cap, and then, going to
the foot of the stairs, called out to his wife.
"Well?" She came to the head of the stairs, and stood looking at him
over the banisters. She had a lighted candle in her hand; and somehow
the wavering flame seemed to cast a sinister shadow over her face.
"I am going to Greenriver, Eva, to see if Mrs. Rose has returned."
"Oh." For a moment she hesitated, opened her mouth as though about to
speak and then yawned instead. "Very well. Don't be long. My head aches
and I want to get to sleep."
"I will be as quick as possible," he said. "I am sorry your head aches.
Try to get to sleep before I return."
He turned away, leaving her staring after him; and her grey eyes were
full of a cruel maliciousness. Eva guessed pretty well how the land lay.
Although she had not expected Toni to give in to the young dentist's
entreaties so soon, she never doubted that the girl had gone away with
him; and she laughed as she remembered how quietly the whole affair had
been conducted.
Except on the occasion of Dowson's loan of magazines, Eva did not
believe his name had ever been mentioned between the Roses; and
certainly it would never enter Owen's head that his wife would go off,
leave him, and leave all the glories of Greenriver, to share the lot of
the inferior and unattractive Mr. Dowson.
Eva had not the slightest feeling of compassion for the unhappy young
wife driven to this step, partly by her own childish folly, but partly,
also, by the evil counsel of the woman she called her friend. Eva know
very well, had known all along, that there could be no happiness for
Toni in such a step; and she fully believed that the girl would come to
hate and fear the life in front of her. But Eva never for one moment
experienced a thrill of pity for the misguided Toni. Rather the thought
of the certain misery which faced her filled Eva's perverted mind with a
wretched triumph; and her only strong emotion at this juncture was a
passionate hope that Owen would not learn the truth in time to save his
wife from the worst consequence of her ill-considered action.
* * * * *
Meanwhile all was confusion at Greenriver. At first Owen had been merely
a little perplexed, not uneasy, at Toni's absence from the dinner-table;
but when it became apparent that she was nowhere in the house he grew
alarmed.
Calling Andrews and Fletcher to him, he bade them get lanterns and
institute a thorough search in the grounds; and the three of them
searched thoroughly--as thoroughly, at least, as was possible in the
clammy fog.
Up and down they went, lanterns swinging, in and out of trees and
shrubs; and into the various summer-houses and garden sheds; but there
was no sign of Toni.
Back into the house--where once again Owen summoned the servants to a
conference--and once again was forced to consider himself baffled.
Kate had seen her mistress last when she carried in the tea. Asked if
Mrs. Rose had said anything about going out, she answered in the
negative; and neither cook nor Maggie had sat eyes upon her since lunch.
Andrews had been out that afternoon, and knew nothing; and Mrs. Blades,
when interrogated, merely sniffed and said Mrs. Rose did not often
honour the housekeeper's room with her presence.
It was at this juncture that Andrews was despatched to Herrick's
bungalow; and in his absence Owen rang up on the telephone all the
people who seemed in the least likely to have seen his wife, but without
result.
A little later he rang up other places--the station, the police station,
even the little Cottage Hospital; but no one had heard or seen anything
of Mrs. Rose; and Owen was forced to wait for Andrews' return.
When the man came, bearing no tidings, Owen understood that the matter
was serious. Toni had gone, left her home in the dusk, departed no one
knew whither. The whole thing was so unexpected, so incredible, that it
was small wonder Owen was completely at sea.
Suddenly a welcome thought flashed into his head. It was possible Toni
had gone to town on the spur of the moment to visit her relations in
Brixton; and the next minute Owen was turning over the leaves of the
telephone directory hurriedly in an endeavour to find the number of the
house in Winter Gardens. Luckily the house boasted a telephone,
installed for the convenience of one of the boys who was connected with
an insurance agency which had its headquarters there; and in a very
short space of time Owen was asking the worthy Mrs. Gibbs over the wire
for news of the missing Toni. But disappointment awaited him. Nothing
had been heard of Toni for three weeks; and she had most certainly not
visited them that day. Mrs. Gibbs, at the other end of the wire, sounded
apprehensive, but Owen had no time to consider her feelings, and rang
off abruptly when he found she had nothing to tell him.
Just as he was turning away from the instrument the door bell rang
quietly; and with a quick movement Owen crossed the hall and threw the
door widely open.
It was not Toni who stood there, however; and seeing the blank look on
Owen's face, Herrick hurried to explain his errand as one merely of
inquiry.
"Come in," said Owen mechanically, drawing his visitor inside the house.
"It's awfully decent of you, Herrick. You have heard of my
wife's--disappearance?"
"Yes. I suppose you have no idea what can have taken her away?"
"Not the slightest. The maids say--now--that her thick motor coat and
cap are gone, and her purse--with a few pounds in, I don't know how
much--is missing from her drawer. But where she has gone is a complete
mystery."
"She gave you no hint of her departure?"
"Not the faintest." Owen became suddenly aware that his visitor's coat
was damp with the wetting mist; and his hospitable instincts awoke. "I
say, come into the library and have a drink. You're pretty well soaked."
He led the way to the library, regardless of Herrick's disclaimers; and
the other man thought it best to follow him, first asking permission to
bring Olga inside the house--a permission readily granted. Once inside
the warm, tranquil room, Owen insisted upon Herrick shedding his coat
and accepting a whisky and soda; but though he pressed Herrick to sit
down and even took a cigarette himself, it was evident that Owen was all
on thorns with anxiety and apprehension.
"You haven't heard your wife say she wanted a change? You know women are
restless beings."
"Not Toni. She was always happy here. I'd promised to take her to
Switzerland for Christmas, and that pleased her; but she was never keen
about going away."
"I see. She was happy here. Well"--his gaze wandered dreamily round the
lamp-lit room, with its mullioned windows and well-filled shelves--"I
don't wonder at that. Anyone might be happy in such a home as this."
"Yes, she always loved Greenriver." Unconsciously both men used the past
tense. "Ever since I brought her here as my wife she loved the old
house."
"She was happy, you say?" Herrick felt a sudden desire to probe beneath
the surface. "You never--forgive me--you never found her
depressed--or--or unsettled--in low spirits?"
"No. She was sometimes a little--well, what shall we call it?--not
bad-tempered, but well, a trifle jumpy; but she seemed to be in good
spirits as a rule."
"You never--I suppose"--he laughed, trying to make the question sound
casual--"you never had any disagreements--any little fallings-out? Oh,
don't think me impertinent--I was only wondering whether perhaps Mrs.
Rose had taken offence at some little thing--and had gone off for a
short visit somewhere to--well, to punish you."
He had half expected Owen to resent the implication; but Owen took it
quietly.
"We never exactly quarrelled," he said. "At least, that isn't quite
true. We did disagree, more than once, on one particular subject; and
last night we certainly had a few words. We both lost our tempers--I
confess I lost mine--and I said one or two things I'd have given the
world to recall afterwards."
"I see." Herrick spoke gravely. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose knows you did
not mean anything unkind----"
"I hope so. By God, I hope so." Owen's voice was hoarse. "If I thought
Toni had taken my words seriously I--why, I said things I didn't mean in
the very least, and I never for one instant dreamed she would take them
as spoken in earnest."
"I see." Herrick repeated the words. "You will pardon me for saying that
Mrs. Rose always struck me as being more sensitive than the majority of
women."
"Did she?" Owen stared at him, struck suddenly by the significance of
his manner. "By Jove, Herrick, I never suspected my wife of any undue
sensitiveness. She always seemed to me too young, too immature and
undeveloped to take things much to heart. Her youth was one of the
greatest charms about her to me. It never struck me she was a woman,
capable of a woman's sufferings----"
He broke off suddenly.
"Stay, though. Once I thought--she looked at me and I thought her
eyes looked different--not like the eyes of a child. I wondered
then ... but ... oh, no, she couldn't think I meant the things I said.
Once or twice I have felt exasperated at what I thought was her
childishness, her ignorance of the world, and I've said things now and
again, unkind things, even cruel things sometimes ... but I've been
secure all the time in the thought that she didn't understand...."
"You wouldn't have hurt her--wilfully?"
"Hurt her?" Owen stared at him. "Good God, man, what do you take me for?
A man doesn't wilfully hurt his wife--the woman he loves. And to hurt
Toni would be like hurting a child."
"Mr. Rose"--Herrick took a resolution to speak plainly--"are you sure
you did not treat your wife rather too much as a child? Are you sure you
didn't deny her the right of a woman, the right to share your life, your
work, your aims? Are you quite sure you never made her feel her
inferiority to you in different ways, never let her see that in some
matters she was perhaps hardly your equal? Oh, I know you are
exceptionally clever, brilliant, and she is only a simple girl; but
still she was not a child; and it may have been rather galling to her to
be treated as one."
For a moment Owen sat motionless, his eyes fixed on the other man's face
with a stare whose earnestness was its justification.
Then--
"Look here, Herrick," he said, "I believe you are trying to tell me
something--something about my wife which I don't know. Well, what is it?
I think, as her husband, I have a right to ask you to share your
knowledge with me. What do you say?"
"I think you have every right," Herrick answered quietly, "and I ask
nothing better than to tell you all I know."
Without further preliminaries he repeated to Owen the conversation he
had had with Toni on the day of the Vicarage Bazaar; and a sudden light
broke over Owen as he listened.
"You are alluding to the occasion when Lady Martin and the Vicar's wife
called her ignorant, frivolous, empty-headed."
"She told you?" Herrick was surprised.
"Yes--long afterwards. But I laughed at her and told her it was
nonsense--jealousy, or something like that. I never dreamed she had
taken it to heart."
"She took it so much to heart that she began to wonder how much was
true, and how she could best rise above the defects with which they
endowed her. She honoured me by asking my advice; and I was only too
glad to help her. She called herself ignorant, and I endeavoured to show
her how, by study and application, she might repair that ignorance. I
recommended her books, mapped her out a course of reading--oh, it's no
use going over it all now; only just what seems important to me is this.
What had specially wounded her was the fact that they had evidently
denied her the possession of a soul." He smiled rather tenderly. "And it
was her passionate desire to show that she _had_ a soul which drove her
to all those desperate expedients of study and the like."
He paused, but Owen did not speak.
"I wonder if the process of making one's soul is a painful one, after
all? Like most new-born creatures, I expect it's a delicate, sensitive
thing at first, easily wounded by a word, a glance.... I don't suppose
it has a very joyful time in the beginning, struggling towards the
fuller light like a weak, fragile little flower opening its petals one
by one to the sun. But luckily a soul is a very vital thing. It can
stand a good deal in the way of unkindness or neglect without
shrivelling up. And I daresay a few kindly words, a sympathetic thought,
are like water to a dying plant--or as the Bible has it 'as the shadow
of a great rock in a thirsty land.'"
As he finished his speech Owen broke in impetuously:
"Don't say any more, Herrick. My God, what a fool I've been! To think
that all this was taking place beneath my eyes and I was too blind, too
self-absorbed to see."
"Well, everyone is blind, at times," said Herrick gently. "I'm not
trying to make you unhappy, Rose--the whole affair is no business of
mine, and you may well resent my interference."
"No, no," said Owen hastily. "God knows your interference is only too
justifiable. But----"
"Perhaps I am to blame, after all, for trying to engineer so delicate a
situation. The fact is, I felt a great pity for Mrs. Rose. She was only
a girl after all, and girlhood is a lively, careless, light-hearted
period. But although her soul appeared--then--to be unawakened, I knew
it was there all the time; and I confess I hoped that when she came into
full possession of it you would draw nearer to one another, and a better
understanding would ensue. But----"
He paused.
"Well? Your plan hasn't worked?"
"I don't know. The thing is, not so much _where_ has Mrs. Rose gone, but
_why_ did she go? Look here, Rose. I'm perfectly certain that her one
thought all through has been for your welfare; and though on the face of
it it seems peculiar that she should take this means of proving her love
for you, I'm quite convinced she is acting on your behalf in this odd
disappearance of hers."
"But how could I benefit by her disappearance?"
"I don't know. But I am quite sure----"
He broke off suddenly, and the next instant the two men started to their
feet as the hoot of a motor-horn sounded loudly outside the house.
"God, Herrick--here's Toni." Owen dashed out of the room followed by
Herrick, and the two reached the front door at the same moment.
Andrews, who had come running from the kitchen regions at the sound of
the horn, flung open the door, and disclosed the big car with its
flaring head-lamps, throbbing itself to a standstill at the foot of the
steps.
A young man jumped out--a man whom neither Rose nor Herrick had ever
seen before--and, rushing up the steps, looked wildly round him.
"Where is she?" he demanded loudly. "Where is she?"
"To whom do you allude?" asked Owen coldly, his fastidious soul revolted
by the spectacle which the young man presented. Dowson was hatless,
dishevelled. In his agony of mind at Toni's departure he had torn his
collar apart, feeling himself choking, and during the drive to
Greenriver he had rumpled his hair so wildly that it stood up in mad
disorder over his head. His face was dusty, the mist had soaked his
clothes till they clung tightly to his narrow frame, and about his whole
figure there was an air of unkempt desolation which was unattractive in
the extreme.
"I allude to Toni--your wife, if you like to call her that." The
unfortunate young man was distraught between disappointment and anxiety.
"Where is she? Has she come home after all?"
"My wife?" Owen raised his eyebrows superciliously. "My good man, what
are you talking about? If you know anything about Mrs. Rose be kind
enough to tell us at once what it is, but please remember she is not
Toni--to you."
"Oh, isn't she?" Beneath the weight of conflicting emotions Mr. Dowson
was losing his head. "Well, she was going to be, that's all. She came
away with me to-night of her own free will ... and we wore going to
cross to Paris, and then ... oh, I don't know what then, but anyway she
was going to stay with me, and when you had divorced her----"
"Divorced her?" Owen uttered the words in so ferocious a tone that the
young man fell back a pace. "What the devil do you mean by making a
suggestion of that sort? And why in God's name should I divorce my
wife--for you?"
The scorn with which he spoke the last two words drove Leonard Dowson to
frenzy.
"Why? Why not? You never loved her--you never knew how to treat her. You
made her miserable, you let her see you thought her inferior to you, not
good enough for you ... you wouldn't dismiss that woman you had to help
you though you knew To--your wife hated her...."
He was lashing himself to greater and greater fury at the thought of
Toni's sufferings.
"Even when you'd made her so wretched that she was ready to die, she
still thought of you. She knew I loved her as she deserved to be loved,
and she was coming away with me, not because she loved me, but because
she thought by leaving you she'd set you free--free to divorce her, to
cast her off, to marry someone else, for all I know--some lady whom
you'd perhaps be pleased to call your equal."
Beneath his savage indictment even Owen stood dumb. There is always
something electrifying about absolute sincerity, and no one, listening,
could possibly doubt that the man was speaking from the very depth of
his soul.
As he stood panting, glaring at Owen with hatred in his eyes, Herrick
stepped forward with a question.
"Excuse me, sir"--neither of them knew, as yet, the name of the
visitor--"may I ask how you became possessed of all this information? I
am perfectly sure that Mrs. Rose herself has not been your informant,
but I fail to see----in the first place, may we ask your name?"
"My name is Dowson, Leonard Dowson." He spoke defiantly. "And as to who
told me, well, it doesn't much matter, that I can see, but it was a
friend of--of Mrs. Rose." He dared not again call her "Toni."
"A friend?" In one sickening flash of intuition, Herrick knew who had
been Toni's evil genius. He stopped short, physically incapable of
questioning further; but Owen had no such scruples.
"Who is this--friend?" He could not help the sneer; and Herrick paled in
the lamplight, fearing yet powerless to avert the answer.
"I don't suppose it matters telling you." Dowson paused. "It was Mrs.
Herrick--Mrs. Rose's best friend--who told me; and she swore that every
word was true."
There was a short, tense silence; and Andrews, who had been hovering
unnoticed in the background, suddenly dived through the baize door and
disappeared, as one who feels his presence an intrusion.
"So it was Mrs. Herrick who gave you this precious information." Owen,
very pale, turned to Herrick. "Herrick, I won't insult your wife by
asking if this is true. It's a lie, of course. Mrs. Herrick is a friend
of my wife's. She would never play such a treacherous, underhand
part----"
"I ... I don't know what to say...."
"No, I should think you don't." Dowson spoke vehemently. "You know it
was she who put me up to it all along. She said Mrs. Rose had owned to
being--well, fond of me in her way, though of course she put her husband
first. But she told me I had a chance, that if I'd offer to take Mrs.
Rose away she'd come ... oh, she convinced me fast enough. I daresay I
was a fool, but I couldn't bear to stand by and say nothing when by
taking her away----"
He stopped suddenly. Owen had made a threatening step forward.
"Look here"--Owen's voice was choked with rage--"stop talking all that
rot, and tell me what you've done with my wife. First, of all, where is
she?"
"How can I tell you when I don't know?" retorted the young man almost
rudely. "She came away with me right enough, and then we had an accident
to the car--a tyre burst--and we went into a hotel at Stratton to wait
for it to be repaired. I went to the post-office to send a telegram, and
when I came back she'd gone."
"Gone--where?"
"Oh, aren't I telling you I don't know?" In his excitement the young
dentist's refinement fell away from him, showing the rough human man
beneath. "She slipped out soon's my back was turned--left a scrap of
paper saying she couldn't go on with me--and that's all I know."
"But she must have left some traces."
"She left her dressing-bag, if that's anything," said Dowson gloomily.
"It's in the car outside. I thought at least she'd have come back here,
and I had to come on to make sure. I"--for a second his rough voice
softened--"I had to be certain she was safe."
"Well, she isn't here." Owen spoke harshly. "You were very ready to take
her away, with your damned philanderings and what not, but you might at
least have looked after her. Where is she? Good God, man, you're not
only a blackguard and a thief--you're a damned fool as well!"
"I may be a fool, but I'm not a blackguard!" Mr. Dowson's eyes blazed in
his pallid face. "_I_ didn't marry the girl and then neglect her--_I_
didn't win her love and then throw it aside as of no importance--_I_
didn't break her heart with my sneers and coldness, as you did. You may
be her husband and I'm only a man who loves her, but I'll guarantee I'd
have known how to treat her a million times better than you ever did."
The two men glared at one another furiously; and for a moment Herrick
feared Owen was about to strike the man who defied him. Owen's face was
convulsed with rage, his eyes looked almost black, and a vein in his
temple hammered madly.
Herrick stepped forward hastily.
"I say, excuse me reminding you that this is not the time for
recriminations. Mrs. Rose has not returned, and the thing to do now is
to set all possible inquiries on foot. You agree with me, Rose?"
Owen turned to him, the passion dying out of his face, leaving only a
great weariness and a great dread.
"You are right. We must find Toni. But how?"
"Well, we'd better make inquiries at Stratton first. You are on the
'phone? Good. Well, we will ring up the railway station, and the hotels.
Mrs. Rose may have gone to one of them for the night. And we could try
the garages. Possibly she will hire a car to bring her home."
"Yes. And I'll order out the car and try the roads myself." Owen looked
suddenly alert. "If she should be attempting to walk home, or anything
of that sort, I should pick her up."
"Yes. And I should give orders to the servants to have everything ready
for Mrs. Rose--food, and fires, and things, when she returns. She'll be
chilled to the bone with this mist."
"Yes. I'll do it at once. I'll go and get on the 'phone, if you'll be so
good as to ring for the servants. I'll order a fire in her room, and a
little supper."
He turned away, full of hope now that there was something to be done;
and Herrick was following him, when Dowson, who had been temporarily
forgotten, asserted his presence.
"And what am I to do while you're searching for her?" His rage had died
away, and he looked the picture of dejection. "Can't I do anything?
I--you know I'd die for Toni--for Mrs. Rose. Can't you suggest something
for me to be doing?"
Owen turned on him fiercely.
"_You?_ You've done enough harm for one night. Suppose you take yourself
off--we've seen all we want of you, I assure you."
"But----"
"Don't stand arguing there," said Owen in a voice whose fury made the
young man wince. "We've had more than enough of you. Be so good as to
take yourself off before I kick you out of the house."
Leonard Dowson gave one last look at the other man's face as though to
see whether this threat was meant to be taken literally. What he read
there apparently decided him; for with a hoarse sigh he turned away in
the direction of the front door.
Without waiting to see if he were obeyed or not, Owen hastened away to
the telephone; and it was Herrick who opened the door and watched the
young man enter the car.
A second later he dismounted again, this time bearing Toni's
dressing-bag, which in her hurry she had left behind; and carrying it up
the steps he put it down, almost tenderly, inside the hall.
"Thank you. That will do." Herrick watched him as he hesitated,
uncertainly. "Don't let me detain you." He held the door widely open.
"Good-night."
Thus dismissed, the young man had no option. He went out into the
chilly, misty night, and mounted the car, which moved swiftly away down
the gloomy drive.
When Herrick had closed the door he paused a moment, wondering if he had
not better follow the late visitor's example and vanish quietly into the
night.
But he heard Owen's voice calling him as he stood hesitating, and found
that, in spite of his wife's treachery, he himself was not debarred from
giving help.
He attempted, awkwardly, to take his leave; but Owen was in no mood to
let him go. Whatever Mrs. Herrick's part in the tragedy, it was evident
that her husband was to be exonerated; and although his heart was sick
within him at the thought of Eva's wickedness, Herrick was wise enough
to see that to implicate himself would be to make matters worse than
they were already.
* * * * *
But although the two men made all possible inquiries, they could hear
nothing of the missing Toni. No one had seen her, no one heard of her;
and as the hours wore on it seemed as though the mist had indeed
swallowed her up so completely that all trace of her was lost.
After nearly an hour's futile telephoning Owen set off in the waiting
car to scour the countryside; while at his urgent request Herrick stayed
behind at Greenriver, in case Toni should arrive in her husband's
absence and find no one to welcome her. Herrick agreed to stay at once,
though he knew his prolonged absence would annoy and possibly upset his
wife. She deserved no consideration, he told himself sternly. It was
largely through her machinations that this thing had come to pass; and a
few hours' anxiety would be a small enough price to pay for her
treachery.
It was nearly four o'clock in the morning when Owen returned, tired out,
despondent, and with no slightest scrap of news. He came into the
library looking ready to drop with fatigue, and found Herrick sitting
over the fire apparently lost in thought. Olga and Jock, who had long
since fraternized, lay side by side on the hearthrug; and all was quiet
and peaceful. But when Herrick sprang up, hearing Owen's step, it was
easy to see that for him, too, the night had worn away in keenest
suspense.
"Well? Any news?"
"No. None." Owen slipped off his thick coat and sank down, wearily, into
a chair. "No one has seen anything of her. The hotel people didn't hear
her go, and no one has the faintest notion where she went."
He shivered, holding out his hands to the blaze.
"Herrick, where can she be? My God, I'd give ten years of my life now to
know she was safe. But to think of her wandering about in the fog--not
daring--not even wanting--to come home ... thinking always of me as the
selfish brute who neglected her and laughed aside her wishes...."
He paused a moment, then began again.
"It wouldn't be so bad if she'd been in love with that fool who was here
to-night. I could have understood her going off with him then. But it
was me she loved all along--she was thinking of me when she went out
into the cruel night to join him.... I'm very certain she shrank from
the step ... well, events prove it, don't they? ... but she was thinking
only of my good and so she nerved herself to do it...."
"Yes." Herrick spoke quietly. "There's no doubt, I think, that your wife
loved you as very few men are loved. It seems--forgive me--a cruel jest
of Fate that you couldn't return her love...."
"But I _did_--and _do_!" Owen's voice rang out with all its old force.
"Before God, man, I do love Toni ... oh, I didn't at first. I confess I
married her without caring for her as a man should care for the woman he
makes his wife. But I've grown fonder of her ever since. Oh, I know it's
all true, what that fellow said--I've been thoughtless, unkind, I did
neglect her, did let her see how I despised her help, but you don't know
what it is to a man to find his work spoilt for the lack of a little
intelligent sympathy.... Oh, I'm not excusing myself--I had no right to
put my work before everything else--even before Toni--and I did. But God
knows I'm punished for it now."
Again he broke off abruptly, only to go on again hastily.
"I own I was mistaken in my reading of Toni's character. I had no idea
she was capable of this sort of sacrifice."
"You never saw into the depths of her soul. If you had----"
"I should have realized what she was. Oh, I know," said Owen, with
humility, "I know now that Toni is a woman, and I pray to God with all
my soul that my knowledge has not come too late."
"You think if you got her back now you might be happy together?"
"Happy? If I could make Toni happy, she would be happy indeed." His tone
was still tinged with that new humility, and in that dreary hour Herrick
began to understand him better than he had ever dreamed of doing.
When at last the grey dawn crept through the large windows Herrick rose
to go.
"I'll get off home for an hour or two. You'd better try to have a sleep,
Rose. We can't do anything more just yet; and it's no use wasting one's
strength."
"Very well." Owen rose and stretched himself, yawning. "I won't go to
bed--I'll sleep on the couch here. You see she might come at any
moment."
Herrick saw it was of no use attempting to urge him to go to bed; so
agreed, at once, that such a return was possible, and two minutes later
he and Olga were outside the house in the chilly silver dawn.
The fog had lifted in the night, and for that Herrick was thankful; but
the air was biting, and as he walked briskly along, Olga trotting
alertly beside him, he owned to himself that a cup of hot coffee,
followed by a sleep, would be welcome indeed.
He let himself softly into the house and proceeded to make some coffee
with the aid of the gas-ring. He was gulping it down, feeling the liquid
driving the cold out of his bones, when Olga growled faintly; and
looking up, he saw his wife standing in the doorway surveying him
maliciously.
"Well? Has the lost lamb been found and returned to the fold?" Her tone
was mockery itself.
"No." For an instant he wondered whether he should accuse her of her
treachery; but suddenly he resolved to wait till he was more normal,
after a rest.
"Really? Well, I don't think she will return just yet. I expect the next
time her loving husband meets our dear Toni, the Divorce Court will be
their meeting-place."
A wave of anger swept over Herrick.
"So that man was right--it was your doing." He put down his cup and
looked steadily at her. "It was through your--your advice that that
unfortunate girl left her home and wont off with Dowson."
"It wasn't through my advice," she said. "As a matter of fact I didn't
know they had fixed it up so quickly. Three days ago it was only a vague
notion--quite in the air, I assure you. I had no idea it had actually
come off."
"You knew, then, that it was a possibility, at least?"
"Yes." Suddenly she stopped and stared at him. "But how do you know? She
didn't leave any message, I suppose?"
"I know because Mrs. Rose's heart failed her when she had taken the
first step. She gave this man Dowson the slip at Stratton and he
immediately returned to Greenriver to ask if she had come back."
"And she hadn't?"
"Of course not." He spoke sternly. "Between you, you have made it almost
impossible for that poor child to return unless her husband fetches her.
Why you should have sought to ruin their homes I confess I fail to
understand. Neither Rose nor his wife had done you any harm."
"No." She stared sombrely at him. "That's true, I suppose. But--oh, you
can't understand, of course."
"Understand what, Eva?" He tried to speak gently, aware through all her
mockery of something piteous, tragic in her attitude.
"You can't understand how I hate to see happiness." She threw back her
head and beneath her white wrapper he saw her breast heave stormily. "I
was happy once, before those men sent me to prison. I used to sing and
laugh--as Toni did--I used to enjoy every moment of my life ... and then
I liked to see people all round me being happy too... But I was taken
away from it all, from the sunshine, the gay, happy people, the shops,
the theatres, taken away and shut up like a wild animal in a
cell ... oh ..." She shivered, and all at once his heart melted
towards her.
"Don't think of that now, dear." He put his hand with real kindness on
her shoulder. "It's all over and done with, and there are better things
in store."
"Not for me." Her tone was unutterably forlorn. "My life is spoilt,
broken--and now"--all at once her expression changed and she spoke
vindictively--"now all I can do is to break other lives!"
"Hush, Eva." He removed his hand from her arm. "Don't talk so. And
remember, if Mrs. Rose comes home safely, you must leave her alone for
the future."
For a moment she said nothing, biting her lip as though in thought. Then
suddenly she shrugged her shoulders and moved away without a word.
* * * * *
When daylight came Owen and Herrick resumed their search for the missing
girl, calling to their aid every device which the wit of man could
suggest.
They left no stone unturned; and though Owen shrank from the necessary
publicity Scotland Yard was informed, and a huge reward offered for
information about the vanished Toni.
But the days passed, glided into weeks, which in their turn grew into
months; and Toni was not found.