Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/197

Rh her father. But at half-past ten, when they returned, the young man had not appeared, and Francie remained only long enough to say, "I told you so!" with a white face and to march off to her room with her candle. She locked herself in and her sister could not get at her that night. It was another of Delia's inspirations not to try, after she had felt that the door was fast. She forbore, in the exercise of a great discretion, but she herself in the ensuing hours slept not a wink. Nevertheless, the next morning, as early as ten o'clock, she had the energy to drag her father out to the banker's and to keep him out two hours. It would be inconceivable now that Gaston should not turn up before the déjeuner. He did turn up; about eleven o'clock he came in and found Francie alone. She perceived, in the strangest way, that he was very pale, at the same time that he was sunburnt; and not for an instant did he smile at her. It was very certain that there was no bright flicker in her own face, and they had the most singular, the most unnatural meeting. As he entered the room he said—"I could not come last evening; they made it impossible; they were all there and we were up till three o'clock this morning." He looked as if he had been through terrible things, and it was not simply the strain of his attention to so much business in America. What passed next she could not remember afterwards; it seemed only a few seconds before he