Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/150

138 For it seems that of yourself you're chief doubter." "I did doubt; I'm easier now. I don't doubt at all when you are near. I wonder why?"

"I wonder, too. But, come, there are a dozen things which I must do. You must be bundled off. Mrs. Peddar, where is this young lady's hat?"

Mrs. Peddar passed into an inner room, presently returning with a hat. While its owner was putting it on. Miss Adair came up to me. I had been aware that the two women had been watching us with wide-open eyes and gaping mouths; now one of them gave partial expression to her feelings.

"What on earth is there between you two? Have you known each other all your lives, or did you meet for the first time last night?"

"That is a question for the metaphysicians. I seem to have known her all my life."

"And has she known you all hers? Is that what I'm to think?"

"There is one thing you are not to think—you are not to think that she had any hand in what was done."

"But it's all so awful! It's all come upon me in an instant: it's taken me unawares. What am I to think after what she said, and did, in that room?"