Dr. Barnhelm spoke quietly, but with a great weariness in his voice.
"I know that I am not alone in my sorrow, but I wish to know nothing
of what you have discovered; nothing now, or ever, of where she has
gone, or of the things that she has done, or will do. I am going to
ask you both not to speak of her in my hearing. It must be as though
she were dead, until the day she comes back to me."
He rose as he finished, and walked to the door.
"But Doctor, will she ever come back?" John said despondently. "Do you
think that we shall ever see her again?"
"I am quite sure of it," Dr. Barnhelm answered. "There can be no
question of that; she will come back."
There was no hope or joy in his voice, only absolute conviction, and
something a little like fear, at least that was the thought that came
to them both, as he quietly left the room.
"He is wrong, Doctor," John said as the door closed. "I have seen her.
She is not coming back."
"She told you so?" questioned Dr. Crossett eagerly.
"No. I did not speak to her. I saw her going up Broadway in Dick
Fenway's automobile. He was with her. She had gone to him. Is with him
now. I tried to stop them, but I failed. They were not alone. They had
a Mrs. Harlan with them."
"A woman! Thank God for that," exclaimed the Doctor. "We may be in
time yet, my boy."
"You don't know this woman," John spoke bitterly. "Her presence
wouldn't protect any girl from such a man as that. She laughs at the
things you and I call decency, or virtue. Between Dick Fenway and such
a woman, Lola hasn't a chance; not a hope! They won't stop, either of
them, until they have dragged her down to their own level!"
"I will go to her," the Doctor spoke eagerly. "She would fear me less
than she would you, or her father, because she has wronged me less. I
will go there, as soon as it is daylight."
[Illustration: LOLA IS HAPPY IN DOCTOR FENWAY'S ROOMS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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