Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/285

 more, and try to slip out by the kitchen window. Teck’s man could not watch all sides of the house at once, and it had seemed as though they had rather more than an even chance of making it.

And so it turned out. It happened so easily that she could scarcely understand her hesitation. They had gone through the window and merged themselves with the shadows immediately, keeping away from the road until they were quite half a mile away from the house. Then they took to the road and were in Hampton in a short time. At Hampton they found a room in a quiet hotel.

“And you intended⸺” he began.

“To leave by the first boat. Ignace would be going out to the cottage, I thought. It would never occur to him to look for me here, of course. By the time he discovered my absence I would be on my way to New York.”

He looked at her, puzzled for a moment. “Then what are you doing here now?” he asked. “Don’t you know that Teck must be here somewhere—if he sees you all your plans will be knocked into a cocked hat.”

“Why, I’m here because⸺” she flushed to the tips of her tiny ears suddenly, and was awkwardly, deliciously silent. “Why,” she began again, “because⸺”

It came to him at once why she was here. How stupid he had been not to guess. Why, she was here because he was stopping at the Chamberlin, and she was afraid something might have happened to him in the fire. Crudely he put the question to her, with masculine lack of reserve.

“You—you came to see if I was safe?” he asked, a