“There seems nothing more to say,” he said.
“Yes, there is,” said Agatha, and her voice was quieter. It had lost its violence. “I asked you to come here because I had something to say to you. You drove it out of my mind by what you said, but I remember it now.” She passed her hand vaguely over her forehead, and stopped speaking for a few seconds. Then she said, very slowly:
“I meant to tell you that you must go away—out of this neighbourhood—at once. At once. It is the only hope of her coming back.”
David’s heart leapt. It was possible after all that Clarrisa might be safe. Agatha had at last betrayed that she could produce her if he were gone away. He answered gently:
“Of course I will go away if it will bring her back. But how do you know that she would come?”
“I don’t know it,” Agatha answered. “But if you were not here it might be the same as if you had never come.”
“Then I will go away,” he said. “ To-day: Immediately. And I hope that will mean that Clarissa will be free before night.”
“It is the only hope,” Agatha answered in a voice that was utterly hopeless.
So David went. But Clarissa did not come back.
She had ceased upon the midnight.
Chapter Fifteen
Helen stood at the window, watching Miss Bodenham in the garden.
After the first miserable days, Agatha had changed. Instead of sitting still and stunned, staring blankly before her, she had begun talking to herself, calling Clarissa by name, muttering, and smiling. She insisted on Clarissa’s place being laid for her at all meals, and her bed prepared at night. She evidently fancied that the girl was still with her, and with her as a little child again.
Now, in the garden, Helen saw Miss Bodenham playing at ball with someone who was not there. She ran about gaily, calling to the other-player, throwing the ball, clapping her hands, and laughing.
Then she flung out of her arms, and taking an imaginary child by her two hands, she danced her round and round.
Helen’s eyes were full of tears.
But when the looked at Agatha’s mindless face, she saw that it was quite happy.
FINIS
Copyright
First published in 1927 by Secker & Warburg
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Copyright © Edith Olivier, 1927
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