riage--she could be sure of that; or if
she hadn't it wouldn't have come back yet; besides, she couldn't
possibly wait there so long as while it was called. She was in the act
of asking one of the attendants, in the portico, to get her a cab, when
some one hurried up to her from behind, overtaking her--a gentleman in
whom, turning round, she recognised Mr. Booker. He looked almost as
bewildered as Mr. Wendover, and his appearance disconcerted her almost
as much as that of his friend would have done. 'Oh, are you going away,
alone? What must you think of me?' this young man exclaimed; and he
began to tell her something about her sister and to ask her at the same
time if he might not go with her--help her in some way. He made no
inquiry about Mr. Wendover, and she afterwards judged that that
distracted gentleman had sought him out and sent him to her assistance;
also that he himself was at that moment watching them from behind some
column. He would have been hateful if he had shown himself; yet (in this
later meditation) there was a voice in her heart which commended his
delicacy. He effaced himself to look after her--he provided for her
departure by proxy.

'A cab, a cab--that's all I want!' she said to Mr. Booker; and she
almost pushed him out of the place with the wave of the hand with which
she indicated her need. He rushed off to call one, and a minute
afterwards the messenger whom she had already despatched rattled up in a
hansom. She quickly got into it, and as she rolled away she saw Mr.
Booker returning in all haste with another. She gave a passionate
moan--this common confusion seemed to add a grotesqueness to her
predicament.

XII

The next day, at five o'clock, she drove to Queen's Gate, turning to
Lady Davenant in her distress in order to turn somewhere. Her old friend
was at home and by extreme good fortune alone; looking up from her book,
in her place by the window, she gave the girl as she came in a sharp
glance over her glasses. This glance was acquisitive; she said nothing,
but laying down her book stretched out her two gloved hands. Laura took
them and she drew her down toward her, so that the girl sunk on her
knees and in a moment hid her face, sobbing, in the old woman's lap.
There was nothing said for some time: Lady Davenant only pressed her
tenderly--stroked her with her hands. 'Is it very bad?' she asked at
last. Then Laura got up, saying as she took a seat, 'Have you heard of
it and d