A sudden eager light sprang into his face. Swiftly he same to her side and stood looking down at her.
"Diana," he said tensely, "must it always remain--the h.e.l.l of memory?"
They were very near to each other in that moment; the great wall fashioned of jealousy and distrust was tottering to its foundations.
And then, from the street below came the high-pitched, raucous sound of the newsboy"s voice:--
"_Attempted Murder of Miss Adrian Jervis! Premier Theatre Besieged._"
The words, with their deadly import, cut between husband and wife like a sword.
"Good G.o.d!" The exclamation burst from Max with a cry of horror. In an instant he was out of the room, down the stairs, and running bareheaded along the street in pursuit of the newsboy, and a few seconds later he was back with a newspaper, damp from the press, in his hands.
Diana had remained sitting just as he had left her. She felt numbed.
The look of dread and consternation that had leaped into her husband"s face, as the news came shrilling up from the street below, had told her, more eloquently than any words could do, how absolutely his life was bound up in that of Adrienne de Gervais. A man whose heart"s desire has been suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed from him might look so; no other.
Max, oblivious of everything else, was reading the brief newspaper account at lightning speed. At last--
"I must go!" he said. "I must go round to Somervell Street at once."
When he had gone, Diana picked up the newspaper from the floor where he had tossed it, and smoothing out its crumpled sheet, proceeded to read the short paragraph, surmounted by staring head-lines, which had sent her husband hurrying hot-foot to Adrienne"s house.
"MURDEROUS ATTACK ON MISS ADRIENNE DE GERVAIS.
"As Miss Adrienne de Gervais, the popular actress, was leaving the Premier Theatre after the matinee performance to-day, a man rushed out from a side street and fired three shots at her, wounding her severely.
Miss de Gervais was carried into the theatre, where a doctor who chanced to be pa.s.sing rendered first aid. Within a very few minutes the news of the outrage became known and the theatre was besieged by inquirers. The would-be a.s.sa.s.sin, who made good his escape, was a man of unmistakably foreign appearance."
Diana laid the paper down very quietly. This, then, was the news which had power to bring that look of fear and dread to her husband"s face--which could instantly wipe out from his mind all thoughts of his wife and of everything that concerned her.
Perhaps, she reflected scornfully, it was as well that the revelation had come when it did! Otherwise--otherwise, she had been almost on the verge of forgetting her just cause for jealousy, forgetting all the past months of misery, and believing in her husband once again.
The trill of the telephone from below checked her bitter thoughts, and hurrying downstairs into the hall, she lifted the receiver and held it to her ear.
"Yes. Who is it?"
Possibly something was wrong with the wire, or perhaps it was only that Diana"s voice, particularly deep and low-pitched for a woman, misled the speaker at the other end. Whatever it may have been, Adrienne"s voice, rather tremulous and shaky, came through the "phone, and she was obviously under the impression that she was speaking to Diana"s husband.
"Oh, is that you, Max? Don"t be frightened. I"m not badly hurt. I hear it"s already in the papers, and as I knew you"d be nearly mad with anxiety, I"ve made the doctor let me "phone you myself. Of course you can guess who did it. It was not the man you caught waiting about outside the theatre. It was the taller one of the two we saw at Charing Cross that day. Please come round as soon as you can."
Diana"s lips set in a straight line. Very deliberately she replaced the receiver and rang off without reply. A small, fine smile curved her lips as she reflected that, within a few minutes, Max"s arrival at Somervell Street would enlighten Miss de Gervais as to the fact that she had bean pouring out her rea.s.suring remarks to the wrong person.
Half an hour later Diana came slowly downstairs, dressed for dinner.
Jerry was waiting for her in the hall.
"There"s a "phone message just come through from Max," he said, a trifle awkwardly. (Jerry had not lived through the past few months at Lilac Lodge without realising the terms on which the Erringtons stood with each other.) "He won"t be back till late."
Diana bestowed her sweetest smile upon him.
"Then we shall be dining _tete-a-tete_. How nice! Come along."
She took his arm and they went in together.
"This is a very serious thing about Miss de Gervais, isn"t it?" she said conversationally, as they sat down.
"A dastardly business," a.s.sented Jerry, with indignation.
"I suppose--did Max give you any further particulars?"
"The bullet"s broken her arm just above the elbow. Of course she won"t be able to play for some time to come."
"How her understudy must be rejoicing," murmured Diana reflectively.
"It seems," pursued Jerry, "that the shot was fired by some shady actor fellow. Down on his luck, you know, and jealous of Miss de Gervais"
success. At least, that"s what they suspect, and Max has "phoned me to send a paragraph to all the morning papers to that effect."
"That"s very curious," commented Diana.
"Why? I should think it"s a jolly good guess."
Diana smiled enigmatically.
"Anyhow, it sounds a very natural supposition," she agreed lightly, and then switched the conversation on to other subjects. Jerry, however, seemed rather absent and distrait, and presently, when at last the servants had handed the coffee and withdrawn, he blurted out:--
"It sounds beastly selfish of me, but this affair has upset my own little plans rather badly."
"Yours, Jerry?" said Diana kindly. "How"s that? Give me a cigarette and tell me what"s gone wrong."
"What would Baroni say to your smoking?" queried Jerry, as he tendered his case and held a match for her to light her cigarette.
"I"m not singing anywhere for a week," laughed Diana. "So this orgy is quite legitimate." And she inhaled luxuriously. "Now, go on, Jerry, what plans of yours have been upset?"
"Well"--Jerry reddened--"I wrote to my governor the other day. It--it was to please Joan, you know."
Diana nodded, her grey eyes dancing.
"Of course," she said gravely, "I quite understand."
"And--and here"s his answer!"
He opened his pocket-book, and extracting a letter from the bundle it contained, handed it to Diana.
"You mean you want me to read this?"
"Please."
Diana unfolded it, and read the following terse communication:--