"Nothing!" answered Kate Daltrey, coldly. "Her only chance is
concealment, and what a poor chance that is! I went over to Sark, never
thinking that your Miss Ollivier whom I had heard so much of was Olivia
Foster. It is an out-of-the-world place; but so much the more readily
they will find her, if they once get a clew. A fox is soon caught when
it cannot double; and how could Olivia escape if they only traced her to
Sark?"
My dread of the woman into whose hands my imbecile curiosity had put the
clew was growing greater every minute. It seemed as if Olivia could not
be safe now, day or night; yet what protection could I or Tardif give to
her?
"You will not betray her?" I said to Kate Daltrey, though feeling all
the time that I could not trust her in the smallest degree.
"I have promised dear Julia that," she answered.
I should fail to give you any clear idea of my state of mind should I
attempt to analyze it. The most bitter thought in it was that my own
imprudence had betrayed Olivia. But for me she might have remained for
years, in peace and perfect seclusion, in the home to which she had
drifted. Richard Foster and his accomplice must have lost all hope of
finding her during the many months that had elapsed between her
disappearance and my visit to their solicitors. That had put them on the
track again. If the law forced her back to her husband, it was I who had
helped him to find her. That was a maddening thought. My love for her
was hopeless; but what then? I discovered to my own amazement that I had
loved her for her sake, not my own. I had loved the woman in herself,
not the woman as my wife. She could never become that, but she was
dearer to me than ever. She was as far removed from me as from Tardif.
Could I not serve her with as deep a devotion and as true a chivalry as
his? She belonged to both of us by as unselfish and noble a bond as ever
knights of old were pledged to.
It became my duty to keep a strict watch over the woman who had come to
Guernsey to find Olivia. If possible I must decoy her away from the
lowly nest where my helpless bird was sheltered. She had not sent for me
again, but I called upon her the next morning professionally, and stayed
some time talking with her. But nothing resulted from the visit beyond
the assurance that she had not yet made any progress toward the
discovery of my secret. I almost marvelled at this, so universal had
been the gossip about my visits to Sark in connection with the
breaking-off of my engagement to Julia. But that had occurred in the
spring, and the nine-days' wonder had ceased before my patient came to
the island. Still, any accidental conversation might give her the
information, and open up a favorable chance for her. I must not let her
go across to Sark unknown to myself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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