I kept looking and waiting, and
still you didn't come. I telephoned Doctor Geddes, when I couldn't
stand it any longer. And then The Author came down-stairs. And oh,
Sophy, there was such an unearthly, clammy, waiting sort of feeling
in the house--all those lights, all those empty rooms--I felt as if
something terrible must be happening!" She clung to me as she spoke,
kissing me, and shook, and wept. "And when you still didn't come,
and we couldn't find you anywhere, The Author suggested that we
should come over here and enlist Mr. Jelnik.
"When we got here, there wasn't a soul in this house. Not even the
dog. We went back to Hynds House, and walked through our garden, and
then came back here, because we didn't know what else to do. Oh,
Sophy!" I patted her shoulders, mumbling that she mustn't cry, it
was ail right.
"Miss Gaines, I am dreadfully sorry you should have been frightened.
But there really wasn't the least occasion for alarm. Because Miss
Smith was with _me_," said Mr. Jelnik calmly.
Alicia looked at him, trying to read his face in the wan light. Her
world, as it were, was rocking under her feet. She looked at me; and
I said nothing.
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