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206 "Help me . . . help me . . . be kind to me."

"But what's the matter?"

"Oh dear, nobody knows about it yet, but I can't keep it all . . . here . . . to myself!"

"Tell me what it is and what I can do."

"I don't know what you can do. But, Constance, I felt I had to . . . had to . . . tell you . . ."

"Tell me then."

"Nobody, nobody knows yet . . . except Louise and Marianne."

"What is it?"

"Emilie . . . Emilie has . . ."

"Has what?"

"She has gone away . . . with Henri . . ."

"Gone away?"

"Run away perhaps . . . with Henri . . . I don't know where. Van Raven doesn't know where. Nobody knows. Adolph van Naghel, my brother-in-law the commissary, has made enquiries . . . and has found out nothing . . . We dissuaded her from seeking a divorce; so did Adolph. Then, no doubt because of that, she ran away with Henri, with her brother. She absolutely refuses to live with Eduard. She has run away . . . Constance, where has she gone to? I don't know! Constance, it's a terrible thing! But keep it to yourself, don't tell anybody. Mamma doesn't know. I want to pretend, if there's nothing else for it, if they don't come back, that she has gone on a little journey, a trip