After what appeared to Hallam an interminable time the doctor came
downstairs. He accompanied Hallam into the study and sat down opposite
to him and looked with keen, understanding eyes into the haggard face of
the man whose agony of mind was written indelibly on every line of the
strongly marked features. Hallam's only question was: "Win she live?"
"Oh, yes."
The relief of this assurance was so tremendous that he scarcely took in
anything else that was said. The doctor outlined the injuries. A
fractured base was the most serious of these. He asked permission to
remove the patient to a nursing-home. The case required skilled
nursing; it was a matter of time and care; absolute quiet and freedom
from worry were essential. The removal could be accomplished that
morning, if he were agreeable. Hallam nodded.
"I leave everything in your hands," he said. "You know best."
He felt suddenly very tired. The strain of anxiety and his long night
vigil began to tell. The doctor eyed him keenly, advised food and rest,
and then rose and went out to his car. Hallam closed the front door
after him, and turned towards the stairs which he climbed wearily.
Outside the door of Esme's room he halted to listen. There was no sound
from within. The nurse was in charge he knew. He had no thought of
entering; he did not desire to enter. He shrank from the idea of
looking upon his wife's face: the memory of her face, still and white,
with the dark fringes of her closed eyes resting on the deathlike pallor
of her cheeks, haunted him; it would haunt him, he believed, all his
life.
While he stood there outside her door, in the faint light that was
creeping in wanly as the dawn advanced, he resolved that her life should
no longer be darkened with his presence: he would go away somewhere--
anywhere,--he would become lost to the world until such time as he could
feel certain that the curse which was ruining their married happiness
was conquered finally and for ever. Never again should the horror of it
cloud her peace.
With head sunk on his breast he turned away from the door and went into
his dressing-room and threw himself, dressed as he was, upon the bed.
Book 3--CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
Following the departure of his wife in an ambulance, Hallam made his own
preparations for leaving home for an indefinite time. He purposed going
into the interior. He wanted to be alone, away from the influences of
civilisation and the sight of European faces, away from the memory of
the past and the nightmare of recent events.