Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/170



ILLY drove cityward, worrying and feeling injured; his worry had so much the ascendant during the first of his journey that he stopped at Devon Avenue and telephoned to Marjorie; after he heard her voice reassuring him about herself, but not asking him to return, he proceeded with deeper feeling of injustice done him. He had tried to do right and tried to make Marjorie do the right and also, he was sure, the best for her in the end; and he was discouraged and baffled by the result.

He did not feel like eating so he put up his car and went to his apartment where he had been alone now for four nights. As he approached the building, he worried about Gregg until he saw lights in the windows which convinced him that, true to the telegram, Gregg had returned; then Billy felt more injured.

If Gregg's disappearance had happened suddenly, Billy would have consulted the police long before; but Gregg's going had been a gradual process. For several evenings—these were the ones when Gregg had been watching at Kilkerry's—he had stayed out late and had refused to discuss his doings with Billy when Bill had told him he had no right habitually to keep himself up so late in the night that he incapacitated himself for business the next day. When Gregg finally stayed away all night, Billy put that down as Gregg's obstinate and irritating way of replying to criticism; it angered Billy but did not really worry him, for he was