"And your father?"
She explained about her father.
"And now she has gone, and you want to find her?"
"Want to find her?"--Betty started up and began to walk up and down the room.--"I don"t care about anything else in the world! She"s a dear; you don"t know what a dear she is--and I know she was happy here--and now she"s gone! I never had a girl friend before--what?"
Vernon had winced, just as Paula had winced, and at the same words.
"You"ve looked for her at the Cafe d"Harcourt?"
"No; I promised her that I"d never go there again."
"She seems to have given you some good advice."
"She advised me not to have anything to do with _you_" said Betty, suddenly spiteful.
"That was good advice--when she gave it," said Vernon, quietly; "but now it"s different."
He was silent a moment, realising with a wonder beyond words how different it was. Every word, every glance between him and Betty had, hitherto, been part of a play. She had been a charming figure in a charming comedy. He had known, as it were by rote, that she had feelings--a heart, affections--but they had seemed pale, dream-like, just a delightful background to his own sensations, strong and conscious and delicate. Now for the first time he perceived her as real, a human being in the stress of a real human emotion. And he was conscious of a feeling of protective tenderness, a real, open-air primitive sentiment, with no smell of the footlights about it. He was alone with Betty. He was the only person in Paris to whom she could turn for help. What an opportunity for a fine scene in his best manner! And he found that he did not want a scene: he wanted to help her.
"Why don"t you say something?" she said impatiently. "What am I to do?"
"You can"t do anything. I"ll do everything. You say she knows Temple.
Well, I"ll find him, and we"ll go to her lodgings and find out if she"s there. You don"t know the address?"
"No," said Betty. "I went there, but it was at night and I don"t even know the street."
"Now look here." He took both her hands and held them firmly. "You aren"t to worry. I"ll do everything. Perhaps she has been taken ill.
In that case, when we find her, she"ll need you to look after her. You must rest. I"m certain to find her. You must eat something. I"ll send you in some dinner. And then lie down."
"I couldn"t sleep," said Betty, looking at him with the eyes of a child that has cried its heart out.
"Of course you couldn"t. Lie down, and make yourself read. I"ll get back as soon as I can. Good-bye." There was something further that wanted to get itself said, but the words that came nearest to expressing it were "G.o.d bless you,"--and he did not say them.
On the top of his staircase he found Temple lounging.
"Hullo--still here? I"m afraid I"ve been a devil of a time gone, but Miss Desmond"s--"
"I don"t want to shove my oar in," said Temple, "but I came back when I"d seen Lady St. Craye home. I hope there"s nothing wrong with Miss Desmond."
"Come in," said Vernon. "I"ll tell you the whole thing."
They went into the room desolate with the disorder of half empty cups and scattered plates with crumbs of cake on them.
"Miss Desmond told me about her meeting you. Well, she gave you the slip; she went back and got that woman--Lottie what"s her name--and took her to live with her."
"Good G.o.d! She didn"t know, of course?"
"But she did know--that"s the knock-down blow. She knew, and she wanted to save her."
Temple was silent a moment.
"I say, you know, though--that"s rather fine," he said presently.
"Oh, yes," said Vernon impatiently, "it"s very romantic and all that.
Well, the woman stayed a fortnight and disappeared to-day. Miss Desmond is breaking her heart about her."
"So she took her up, and--she"s rather young for rescue work."
"Rescue work? Bah! She talks of the woman as the only girl friend she"s ever had. And the woman"s probably gone off with her watch and chain and a collection of light valuables. Only I couldn"t tell Miss Desmond that. So I promised to try and find the woman. She"s a thorough bad lot. I"ve run up against her once or twice with chaps I know."
"She"s not _that_ sort," said Temple. "I know her fairly well."
"What--Sir Galahad? Oh, I won"t ask inconvenient questions." Vernon"s sneer was not pretty.
"She used to live with de Villermay," said Temple steadily; "he was the first--the usual coffee maker business, you know, though G.o.d knows how an English girl got into it. When he went home to be married--It was rather beastly. The father came up--offered her a present. She threw it at him. Then Schauermacher wanted her to live with him. No.
She"d go to the devil her own way. And she"s gone."
"Can"t something be done?" said Vernon.
"I"ve tried all I know. You can save a woman who doesn"t know where she"s going. Not one who knows and means to go. Besides, she"s been at it six months; she"s past reclaiming now."
"I wonder," said Vernon--and his sneer had gone and he looked ten years younger--"I wonder whether anybody"s past reclaiming? Do you think I am? Or you?"
The other stared at him.
"Well," Vernon"s face aged again instantly, "the thing is: we"ve got to find the woman."
"To get her to go back and live with that innocent girl?"
"Lord--no! To find her. To find out why she bolted, and to make certain that she won"t go back and live with that innocent girl. Do you know her address?"
But she was not to be found at her address. She had come back, paid her bill, and taken away her effects.
It was at the Cafe d"Harcourt, after all, that they found her, one of a party of four. She nodded to them, and presently left her party and came to spread her black and white flounces at their table.
"What"s the best news with you?" she asked gaily. "It"s a hundred years since I saw you, Bobby, and at least a million since I saw your friend."
"The last time I saw you," Temple said, "was the night when you asked me to take care of a girl."
"So it was! And did you?"
"No," said Temple; "she wouldn"t let me. She went back to you."
"So you"ve seen her again? Oh, I see--you"ve come to ask me what I meant by daring to contaminate an innocent girl by my society?--Well, you can go to h.e.l.l, and ask there."
She rose, knocking over a chair.