Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/145

Rh She was going on, but, eagerly, he went before her. "Can I help you?"

"Yes if there is help. You can do so first by not asking me a question till I have put those I wish to yourself."

"Put them—put them!" he said impatiently.

At his peremptory note she quivered, showing him she was in the state in which every sound startles. She locked her lips and closed her eyes an instant; she held herself together with an effort. "I'm in great trouble, and I venture to believe that if you came back to me to-day it was because"

He took her up shorter than before. "Because I thought of you as a friend? For God's sake, think of me as one!"

She pressed to her lips while she looked at him the small tight knot into which her nerves had crumpled her pocket-handkerchief. She had no tears—only a visible terror. "I've never appealed to one," she replied, "as I shall appeal to you now. Effie Bream is dead." Then as instant horror was in his eyes: "She was found in the water."

"The water?" Dennis gasped.

"Under the bridge—at the other side. She had