Page:Zangwill-King of schnorrers.djvu/407

393 FL UTTER-D UCK. 393

" Ah, there she is ! " hysterically ejaculated Flutter-Duck, starting up.

" The Holy One be blessed ! " cried Lewis, rushing down the stairs.

A strange figure, the head covered by a green tartan shawl, greeted him. A cold ague passed over his limbs.

"Thank God, it's all right," said Mrs. Lefkovitch. "I see from your light you are still working but isn't it time my Emanuel left off?"

" Your Emanuel?" gasped Lewis, with a terrible suspicion. " He went home early in the day ; he was taken ill."

Flutter-Duck, who had crept at his heels bearing a candle, cried out, " God in Israel ! She has flown away with Emanuel."

" Hush, you piece of folly ! " whispered Lewis furiously.

" Yes, it was already arranged, and you blamed me ! " gasped Flutter-Duck, with a last instinct of self-defence ere consciousness left her, and she fell forward.

" Silence," Lewis began, but there was an awful desolation at his heart and the salt of blood was in his mouth as he caught the falling form. The candlestick rolled to the ground, and the group was left in the heavy shadows of the staircase and the cold blast from the open door.

" God have mercy on me and the poor children ! I knew all along it would come to that ! " wailed Emanuel's wife.

"And I advanced him his week's money on Monday," Lewis remembered in the agony of the moment.