The dark-bearded man, by whose enterprise that big business had been built up, turned in his chair and faced her.
"Miss Rolfe!" he exclaimed. "Ah! yes," and he referred to a memorandum upon his desk. "You were absent without leave last night, the housekeeper reports. You are aware of rule seventy-three--eh?"
"Most certainly, sir," was the trembling girl"s reply, for this meant to her all her future, and more. It meant Max"s love. "But I think I ought to explain that--"
"I have no time, miss, for explanations. You know the rule. When you were engaged here you signed it, and therefore I suppose you"ve read it.
It states as follows: `Any a.s.sistant absent after eleven o"clock without previously obtaining signed leave from Mr Hemmingway or myself will be discharged on the following day." The firm have, therefore, dispensed with your services. As regards character, Miss Rolfe, please understand that the firm is silent."
"But, Mr Cunnington," cried the girl, "I was absent at the express request of Mr Statham. He wished to see me." The head of the firm frowned slightly, answering:
"I have no desire to enter into the reasons of your absence. You could easily have asked for leave. If Mr Statham had wished to see you, he would have sent me a note, no doubt. It was at his request I engaged you, I recollect. Therefore, I think that the least said regarding last night the better."
"But Mr Statham promised me he would send you a message this morning,"
the girl declared in her distress.
"Parker, has Mr Statham been on the "phone this morning?" asked Mr Cunnington of the young man seated near him.
"No, sir," was the prompt reply.
"But will you not ask him?" cried the girl. "He promised me he would communicate with you."
Mr Cunnington hesitated for a moment. He reflected that the girl was a _protegee_ of the millionaire. Therefore he gave Parker orders to ring up the man whose millions controlled the concern.
Marion waited in breathless anxiousness. The secretary asked for Mr Statham, and spoke to him, inquiring if he knew anything of Miss Rolfe"s absence from the firm"s dormitory on the previous night. "Mr Statham says, sir," said Parker at last, "that he is too busy to be troubled with the affaire of any of Cunnington"s shop-a.s.sistants."
The reply filled Mr Cunnington with suspicion. It showed him plainly that Statham had at least no further interest in the girl, and that her discharge would be gratifying.
"You hear the reply," he said to her. "That is enough." And he scribbled something upon a piece of paper. "Take it to the cashier, and he will pay your wages up to date."
"Then I am discharged!" asked the girl, crimsoning--"sent out from your establishment without a character?"
"By reason of your own action," was the rough reply. "You know the rules. Please leave. I am far too busy to argue."
"But Mr Statham wrote asking me to call and see him. I have his letter here."
"I have no desire or inclination to enter into Mr Statham"s affairs,"
Cunnington replied. "You are discharged for being absent at night without leave. Will you go, Miss Rolfe?" he asked angrily.
"Mr Cunnington," she said, quite quietly, "you misjudge me entirely.
Mr Statham asked me to call upon him in secret, because he desired me to give him some private information. He promised at the same time to send you word, so that my absence should not be mentioned. You are a man of honour, with daughters of your own," she went on appealingly.
"Because I refused to betray a friend of mine, a woman, he has refused to stretch forth a hand to save me from the disgrace of this discharge,"
and tears welled in her fine eyes as she spoke.
"It is a matter that does not concern me in the least, Miss Rolfe, Mr Statham put you here, and if he wishes for your discharge I have nothing to say in the matter. Good morning."
And he turned from her and busied himself with the heap of papers on his desk.
She did not move. She stood as one turned to stone. Therefore he touched the electric b.u.t.ton beneath the arm of his chair, and a clerk appeared.
"Send in Mortimer," he said coldly, disregarding the girl"s presence.
Then Marion, seeing that all appeal was in vain, turned upon her heel and went out--broken and bitter--a changed woman.
Mr Cunnington turned and watched her disappearing. Suddenly, as though half uncertain whether his action might not be criticised by Statham, he exclaimed:
"Call that young lady back!"
Marion returned, her face full of anger and dignity.
"Do I really understand you that Mr Statham invited you to his house?"
he asked her. "I mean that you received letters from him?"
"Yes."
The dark-bearded man, alert and businesslike, eyed her critically, and asked:
"You have those letters, I presume."
"Certainly. I have them here," was her reply, as she fumbled in the pocket of her black skirt. "I refused to call upon him, but he pressed me so much that I felt it imperative. He has been so very good to me that I feared to displease him."
And she placed several letters upon Mr Cunnington"s desk.
"I see they are marked `private,"" he said, with a good deal of curiosity. "Have I your permission to glance at them?"
"Certainly," was the cool reply. "You refuse to hear me, therefore I am compelled to give you proof."
The man opened them one after the other, scanned them, and placed them aside. Statham"s refusal to answer the query upon the telephone was for him all-sufficient.
"You had better leave these letters with me, Miss Rolfe," he said decisively, for he saw that at all hazards he must obtain that correspondence and hand it back to the writer.
"But--"
"There are no buts," he exclaimed, quickly interrupting her. "Had Mr Statham desired you to remain in our service he would have replied to that effect. Come, you are wasting my time. Good morning."
And a moment later, almost before she was aware of it, Marion found herself outside the room, with the door closed behind her.
She was no longer in the service of Cunnington"s. She had been discharged in disgrace.
What would Charlie say? What explanation could she offer to Max?
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
THE MYSTERIOUS MADEMOISELLE.
The future, nay, the very life, of Samuel Statham depended, according to his own admission to his secretary, upon the honour of Maud Petrovitch.
The position was, to say the least, strangely incongruous. Here was a man whose power and wealth were world-famous, a man whom kings and princes sought to conciliate and load with honours, which he steadfastly refused to accept, dependent for his life upon a woman, little more than a child.
Charlie Rolfe had thought over his master"s strange, enigmatical words many times. Maud--his Maud whom he loved so dearly, and who had so suddenly and mysteriously gone out of his life--was to be sacrificed.
Why? What did old Sam mean when he uttered those words, each of which had burnt indelibly into his soul.