But in that
case would not Mrs. Jordan have written "Gone to America"?
Her heart stood still with another thought--could she
have gone with Kendal? Granting that she had made up her
mind to marry him, it would be just Elfrida's strange,
sensational way. Janet walked the floor in a restless
agony, mechanically tearing the note into little, strips.
She must know--she must find out. She would write and
ask him for something--for what? A book, a paper--the
_New Monthly_, and she must have some particular reason.
She sat down to write, and pressed her fingers upon her
throbbing eyes in the effort to summon a particular
reason. It was as far from her as ever when the maid
knocked and came in with a note from Kendal asking them
to go to see Miss Rehan in "As You Like It" that evening
--a note fragrant of tobacco, not an hour old.
"You needn't wait, Jessie," she said. "I'll send an answer
later;" and the maid had hardly left the room before
Janet was sobbing silently and helplessly with her head
on the table. As the day passed however, Elfrida's conduct
seemed less unforgivable, and by dinner-time she was able
to talk of it with simple wonder, which became more
tolerant still in the course of the evening, when she
discovered that Kendal was as ignorant and as astonished
as they themselves.
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