The car turned in at Schwitter's road and drew up before the house. The narrow porch was filled with small tables, above which hung rows of electric lights enclosed in Japanese paper lanterns. Midweek, which had found the White Springs Hotel almost deserted, saw Schwitter's crowded tables set out under the trees. Seeing the crowd, Wilson drove directly to the yard and parked his machine.
“No need of running any risk,” he explained to the still figure beside him. “We can walk back and take a table under the trees, away from those infernal lanterns.”
She reeled a little as he helped her out.
She looked white. He felt a stab of pity for her. She leaned rather heavily on him as they walked toward the house. The faint perfume that had almost intoxicated him, earlier, vaguely irritated him now.
At the rear of the house she shook off his arm and preceded him around the building. She chose the end of the porch as the place in which to drop, and went down like a stone, falling back.
There was a moderate excitement. The visitors at Schwitter's were too much engrossed with themselves to be much interested. She opened her eyes almost as soon as she fell--to forestall any tests; she was shrewd enough to know that Wilson would detect her malingering very quickly--and begged to be taken into the house. “I feel very ill,” she said, and her white face bore her out.
Schwitter and Bill carried her in and up the stairs to one of the newly furnished rooms. The little man was twittering with anxiety. He had a horror of knockout drops and the police. They laid her on the bed, her hat beside her; and Wilson, stripping down the long sleeve of her glove, felt her pulse.
“There's a doctor in the next town,” said Schwitter. “I was going to send for him, anyhow--my wife's not very well.”
He closed the door behind the relieved figure of the landlord, and, going back to Carlotta, stood looking down at her.
“I don't remember. Everything went black. The lanterns--”
He crossed the room deliberately and went out, closing the door behind him. He saw at once where he stood--in what danger. If she insisted that she was ill and unable to go back, there would be a fuss. The story would come out. Everything would be gone. Schwitter's, of all places!