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It was dated from the Yorick Club, a small but exceedingly comfortable Bohemian centre in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, and had evidently been written hurriedly on the previous night: "I hear you are absent in the country. That is unfortunate. But as soon as you receive this, lose no time in calling at the Hennikers' and making casual inquiries regarding Miss Mivart.
She inquired of Ethelwynn and of the Hennikers, remarking that she had seen nothing of them for over three weeks; and then, when the servants had left the room, she placed her elbows upon the table, at the risk of a breach of good manners, and resting her chin upon her hands, looked me full in the face, saying: "Now, tell me the truth, Doctor.
He had urged me to go and find out some details regarding her recent life with the Hennikers; and with that object I remarked: "She hasn't been very well of late, I fear. The change of air should do her good." "That's true, poor girl. She's seemed very unwell, and I've often told her that only one doctor in the world could cure her malady yourself." I smiled.
"Nothing at all," I assured her, walking with her across to the fire and seating myself in the cosy-corner, while she threw herself upon a low lounge chair and pillowed her dark head upon a big cushion of yellow silk. "Where is Mary?" I asked. "Out. She's dining with the Hennikers to-night, I think." "And leaves you at home to look after the invalid?" I remarked.
"I called at the Hennikers' a couple of days ago, but Ethelwynn is no longer there. She's gone into the country, it seems," I remarked. "Where to?" she asked quickly. "She's visiting someone near Hereford." "Oh!" she exclaimed, as though a sudden light dawned upon her. "I know, then. Why, I wonder, did she not tell me. I intended to call on her this evening, but it is useless.
I dared not yet tell her the terrible truth that he had been the victim of foul play. "It is my fault!" she cried. "My place was here at home. But but why was I not here?" she added with a blank look. "Where did I go?" "Don't you remember that you went to London with the Hennikers?" I said. "Ah! of course!" she exclaimed. "How very stupid of me to forget.
Tom's thought ran lightning-like over the long list of the Vancourt Hennikers: men of the business world successful to the Croesus mark, large and liberal benefactors, founders of colleges, libraries and hospitals, gift-givers to their fellow men, irreproachable in private life, and yet apparently stone blind on the side of the larger equities.
I dashed quickly into the room, and to my horror saw what had occurred. Then my thoughts were for Mary to conceal her guilt. Whispering to her to obey me I led her downstairs, through the back premises, and so out into the street. A cab was passing, and I put her into it, telling the man to drive to the Hennikers', with whom she had been spending the evening.
She had stayed several days with Ethelwynn at the Hennikers', then had visited her aunt near Bath. That was all I knew of her movements, for, truth to tell, I held her in some contempt for her giddy pleasure-seeking during her husband's illness.
I doubted her; and though I strove hard to conceal my true feelings, I fear that my coldness was apparent, not only to her but to the Hennikers also. She had complained of it when she called at my rooms, and certainly she had full reason for doing so. I am not one of those who can feign love. Some men can; I cannot.
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