In less than an hour we pulled up before the Hotel Dent du Chat, a simple, unpretending hostelry, to which I had telegraphed in advance, stating my needs.
We were received with profuse civility, the best of everything placed at our disposal, a best at which Lady Henriette, as I might have expected, turned up her nose, sniffing and scornful.
She uttered no complaint, she would not address a word to me; her air was one of lofty, contemptuous reserve; she intimated plainly that we were "dead cuts."
Only at the last, just as I was driving away and lifted my hat in farewell, she yielded to an impulse of despair, and seized my arm in almost frenzied appeal.
"You must not, you cannot desert me; I will not be left like this.
No man, no gentleman would do it.
I beg and implore you to remain within reach, somewhere near at any rate.
I can never face this place alone."
Her last appeal touched me to the quick.
Once more I sought to explain the dire necessity for this act that seemed so barbarous, but she was deaf to all my arguments, and still clung to me nervously as I climbed into the carriage.
When at length I got away, and I persisted in leaving, being so fully satisfied it was for the best, her piteous, reproachful accents still rung in my ears, and I shall count that return drive to Aix as the most miserable hour I have passed in my life.
The whole episode had occupied much time, and it was already past one when I reentered the town.
I drove straight to the railway station, and was met outside it by the faithful l'Echelle.
"Monsieur, monsieur, will you believe it?
They have gone half an hour ago, and not by the eastern but the western express."
"You saw them?"
"I spoke to them.
Falfani himself told me of the change in their plans.
The latest news from their man in the south was so positive, and has so convinced my lord, that he is hastening full speed to join Tiler, and they are only too delighted to leave you behind."
I laughed aloud with intense satisfaction.
"You do not mind, monsieur?
You have no reason to fear them?"
"Not the least in the world, they are playing into my hands.
I, too, have changed my plans.
I shall now remain in Aix for some time longer.
I shall be glad to go on with the baths."
But I was thinking really of that poor creature I had abandoned at Le Bourget, and overjoyed to think that I might now meet her wishes, and perchance regain something of her good-will.
Once more I took the road to Le Bourget, driving over by the first fiacre I could pick up on the stand, a much slower journey than the first, and it was nearly 3 p.m. when I reached the little hotel.
It was indeed a day of surprises, of strange emotions and moving incidents.
When I alighted and asked for "Mrs. Blair," I was answered abruptly that she was gone.
"Gone?
When? How?" I cried, in utter amazement.
"Madame went very soon after monsieur," said the patronne, in high dudgeon. "She was not complimentary, she said this place was too triste, that it got on her nerves.
She called me up and said I was to bring her the Indicateur.
Then she must have a carriage as soon as it could be prepared to drive her to Culoz, fifteen miles away, meaning to take the train from there."
"Not to Aix?"
"Assuredly not, for when I suggested that she could more easily find the train there she told me to hold my tongue, that she knew very well what she was about, and wanted no observations from me."
To Culoz?
She was bound then to follow her sister, I felt sure of it; and I was aghast, foreshadowing the new dangers opening before her.
CHAPTER XXVI. [The Lady Claire Standish has her say.]
It was as much as I could do to restrain myself when I saw my gallant knight, the Colonel, rush at that despicable creature, Lord Blackadder, and shake him.
I wanted to put my head out of the window and cry,
"Well done!" But I saw the folly of it, much as I was delighted, and checked any demonstration of joy.
I had no time to spare for anything outside our settled plan, so I jumped out on to the platform at once, and closely followed by Philpotts joined Henriette, and cried:
"Quick, quick, dear, the train goes on in less than ten minutes.
Give me the child, we must exchange again."
"What do you mean?" she gasped, and looked at me dazed and bewildered. "Why should I part with my boy, my own boy!
I cannot, indeed I cannot.
Why?
Why?"