Theron drew a long breath in the hall, as the curtain fell behind him.It was an immense relief to escape from the oppressive humidity and heat of the flower-room, and from that ridiculous bore of a Michael as well.
The middle-aged, grave-faced servant, warned by the bell, stood waiting to conduct him to the door.
"I am sorry to have missed Miss Madden," he said to her.
"She must be quite worn out.Perhaps later in the day--""She will not be seeing anybody today," returned the woman.
"She is going to New York this evening, and she is taking some rest against the journey.""Will she be away long?" he asked mechanically.
The servant's answer, "I have no idea," hardly penetrated his consciousness at all.
He moved down the steps, and along the gravel to the street, in a maze of mental confusion.When he reached the sidewalk, under the familiar elms, he paused, and made a definite effort to pull his thoughts together, and take stock of what had happened, of what was going to happen;but the thing baffled him.It was as if some drug had stupefied his faculties.
He began to walk, and gradually saw that what he was thinking about was the fact of Celia's departure for New York that evening.He stared at this fact, at first in its nakedness, then clothed with reassuring suggestions that this was no doubt a trip she very often made.
There was a blind sense of comfort in this idea, and he rested himself upon it.Yes, of course, she travelled a great deal.New York must be as familiar to her as Octavius was to him.Her going there now was quite a matter of course--the most natural thing in the world.
Then there burst suddenly uppermost in his mind the other fact--that Father Forbes was also going to New York that evening.The two things spindled upward, side by side, yet separately, in his mental vision;then they twisted and twined themselves together.
He followed their convolutions miserably, walking as if his eyes were shut.
In slow fashion matters defined and arranged themselves before him.The process of tracing their sequence was all torture, but there was no possibility, no notion, of shirking any detail of the pain.The priest had spoken of his efforts to persuade Celia to go away for a few days, for rest and change of air and scene.He must have known only too well that she was going, but of that he had been careful to drop no hint.The possibility of accident was too slight to be worth considering.People on such intimate terms as Celia and the priest--people with such facilities for seeing each other whenever they desired--did not find themselves on the same train of cars, with the same long journey in view, by mere chance.
Theron walked until dusk began to close in upon the autumn day.It grew colder, as he turned his face homeward.
He wondered if it would freeze again over-night, and then remembered the shrivelled flowers in his wife's garden.
