Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/60

 "No; you mustn't do even that!"

"Why not? Gregg, I'm going to my father."

"Let Bill and me go for you, Marjorie."

"And I stay here when he's Gregg, let go of me! I must call Leonard; and if I can't find him, I'll borrow Mrs. Chaden's car."

She wrenched her arm from him and he realized he could not physically struggle with her there; yet, unless he stopped her, in a moment she would tell other people and start for her father with them.

"Just wait here, Marjorie. I'll bring Bill down," Gregg offered a promise. "Then, if you will go, we'll take you to your father."

She accepted it for a promise. "You'll hurry, won't you? But don't let any one know anything's wrong, Gregg."

"Of course not."

He endeavored to wander on to the dance floor as casually as usual, but he found himself gazing at friends stupidly and staring at strangers. He could not think about these people; what a blow had struck Marjorie and, unless he could save her, what another was in store for her this night! The idea of it made him first hopelessly weak and then made him feel frantically strong. He felt like rushing down to her again and seizing her in his arms and holding her to him away from every one and everything else and bearing her far, far off. But that wild sensation, of course, was silly.

Suddenly he saw Bill's tall, blond head above the others; and Gregg's shoulders shuddered up. He hadn't been able to think of the blow this would be to Bill; he did not know, until this moment, how much he loved old Bill's idealism and the simple faiths about which he