And afterwards? Afterwards Fate had been all against her. It had
been easy to escape from her engagement at Johannesburg,
comparatively easy to shut the past experience into the inner places
of her mind, to close her lips with the show of a smile, and to
plunge into a whirl of social life which should leave her no time
for quiet thought. So long as she kept her secret to herself, it
mattered nothing to the girl that it was eating pitilessly at her
vitality, that it was ever hard and harder for her to keep up her
ceaseless round of gayety.
And then, all at once, their home life had been invaded by the man
who was never absent from her thoughts. In a sense, she was glad of
the invasion. It proved to her, more surely than any words could
have done, that she had kept her secret well and beyond suspicion.
Had her mother gained any inkling of the true state of the case,
Harvard Weldon would never have been brought away from the room at
the Grand. For so much surety, Ethel Dent could rejoice with a
thankful heart. Nevertheless, as the days passed by, Weldon's
presence in the house increased the strain tenfold. Night after
night, Ethel had crept noiselessly from her room across the hallway
and crouched outside his door, listening for any sounds from within
which might tell her that all was well with the man whom she would
not see.
Pages:
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300