For some time we rushed hither and thither in breathless anxiety,
convinced that having burned all her letters, her intentions were those
of self-destruction.
Some untoward event had evidently occurred of which we knew nothing, and
she had been forced to the last extremity. We had explored all my
love's favourite walks, but in that gusty storm that swept across the
park we could hear nothing. It was not exactly dark, but the moon was
overcast by heavy rain-clouds, and passing through that portion of the
grounds known as "the wilderness," a wild tangle of rhododendrons and
laurels, with big old trees from which the leaves fell in showers upon
us, we at length approached the lake, a large sheet of water in the
centre of the wild uncultivated spot, where the moorhen nested
undisturbed and the lordly heron roosted high above. The spot was
lonely and unfrequented--the place, no doubt, she would select if she
really intended to take her own life.
We both approached it, fearing the worst. The shrill cries of the
night-birds sounded above the moaning of the wind, while before us lay
the broad sheet of water grey and mysterious in the clouded moon.
We had walked some distance along its edge, when Keene suddenly gripped
my arm, and whispered--
"Look!--look ahead! can't you see her?--with a man!"
I strained my eyes, and there, sure enough, wearing a dark cloak, she
stood erect, statuesque, with the pale light falling upon her white
face, while the man had apparently gripped her arm and dragged her from
the water's edge.
Next moment I was beside the pair, and to my dismay recognised that her
companion was the fellow Logan, whom I had last seen entering that dark
unlit house outside Milan.
"What's the meaning of this?" I cried in quick anger. "Release that
lady, and tell me why I find you here with her."
"I am here to save her," was his calm reply. "I have already prevented
her taking a fatal step, and if you will accompany me to the Hall I
think you will find that, instead of proving myself her enemy, I shall
show her that I am her friend. You think evil of me, I know--both of
you. But an innocent woman's life shall not be sacrificed. I came here
from London to-night, in order to meet another lady, the Countess of
Stanchester, but by good fortune I met Lady Lolita, and she has told me
the truth."
"Of what?" inquired Keene.
"Of what I will reveal on our return to the Hall," was the man's answer.
"You know much that you have not told, but to save her ladyship here, I
will now make the whole thing plain."
"But why have you not spoken before? You had plenty of opportunity,"
Keene remarked.
"Because something that Lady Lolita has just told me makes it plain how
cleverly her enemies succeeded in closing my lips. Come, it is cold.
Her ladyship is shivering."
"Come with me, Lolita," I said, and linking my arm in hers led her back
along the path through the wilderness and across her Saints' Garden to
the Hall.
The four of us were silent, all too occupied with own our thoughts to
discuss the matter with each other. The sudden determination of the man
Logan showed me that he meant at last to tell all that he knew.
"Lolita," I whispered into her ear, just as we were about to enter the
house, "whatever caused you to contemplate such a terrible step
to-night?"