Ellsworth was safe. No doubt she was all right, because I heard them
talking together while I examined your premises. The next thing I knew,
as I was coming down with the news that everything was quiet, you blazed
away. It was quite a surprise."
"I fired in the air, not at you," Ruthven Smith excused himself, more or
less convinced. Annesley clutched the banisters in the sudden weakness of
a great revulsion from panic to relief. She might have known that _he_
would somehow rescue her, even from her own blundering.
The shamed red which had stained Annesley's cheeks at Ruthven Smith's
contempt died away. Her "lover"--he was openly that now--had miraculously
made his presence in the other Smith's room, after eleven o'clock at
night in this early bed-going household, the most natural thing in the
world. At least, Ruthven Smith's almost apologetic tone in answering
proved that he had been persuaded to think it so.
With Mrs. Ellsworth, however, it would be different. There would lie the
stumbling-block; but with all danger from the Browning ended, the girl
was in no mood to borrow trouble for the future, even a future already
rushing into the arms of the present.
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