"By Jove," I exclaimed. "Can’t say I wish you luck, Dormund." Then I turned to the porter. "Here, get these trunks to the cloak-room. I’ll drive back for the other and see if I can catch the train after all. Come along, Bessie."
She acted the sulky sister to the life and succeeded in keeping her face almost entirely averted from Dormund.
He remained with me while I got rid of the luggage and then while I chartered the cab; and I began to wonder if after all he had not some suspicion and whether he would let Althea go.
She had kept behind us and when the cab was ready, the door of which Dormund himself held open, she hurried past him and took her seat. He closed the door and stood bareheaded while we drove off.
"Will he follow us?" asked Althea nervously.
"Not he. He hasn’t a thought of the trick we’ve played him."
"Oh, Mr. Bastable, how could you do it so naturally? I was positively trembling the whole time."
"You needn’t worry about anything now," I said reassuringly. "Try to fix your thoughts on what is to be done next."
Neither did I. Nor did I seem to care. The unexpectedness of it all had taken my breath away. The whole position was so unreal that I was in the clouds.
A few minutes before I had been bent only upon rushing away in search of distraction from the galling rack of my disappointment on her account; and now she had rushed to me in the hour of her trouble, and was by my side, trusting to me to get her out of it all.
I would do it at any cost; but for the moment I was so elated by the proof of her confidence, that I could think of nothing else.
Althea was at first unwilling to go to our house, as such a course might involve us in some way with the authorities; but I would not listen to her objections.
"Let me suggest one precaution," I said as the cab stopped. "That you hold your handkerchief to your face as you enter. We have one German servant, Gretchen, and she had better not recognize you. The other two are English, and will hold their tongues."
She adopted the suggestion, and when we entered the house we found that Bessie had already arrived and had explained that I had missed the train. She kissed Althea and fussed over her in the way girls have, and I could see that she was bursting with curiosity to know everything.