You let her run back home, with what she had guessed and
what you told her to-day. You--"
He struck her then. The blow was as remorseless as his voice, as
deliberate. She fell down the staircase headlong, and lay there,
not moving.
The elderly maid came running from the kitchen, and found him
half-way down the stairs, his eyes still calculating, but his body
shaking.
"She fell," he said, still staring down. But the servant faced him,
her eyes full of hate.
"You devil!" she said. "If she's dead, I'll see you hang for it."
But Elinor was not dead. Doctor Smalley, making rounds in a nearby
hospital and answering the emergency call, found her lying on her
bed, fully conscious and in great pain, while her husband bent over
her in seeming agony of mind. She had broken her leg. He sent
Doyle out during the setting. It was a principle of his to keep
agonized husbands out of the room.
CHAPTER XXXII
Life had beaten Lily Cardew. She went about the house, pathetically
reminiscent of Elinor Doyle in those days when she had sought
sanctuary there; but where Elinor had seen those days only as
interludes in her stormy life, Lily was finding a strange new peace.
Pages:
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427