“Gil!” she uttered, in a breaking voice. “Help me! Oh, will you please help me?”
The three gentlemen had sprung instinctively to their feet upon her entering the room, and now stood rooted to the floor, gazing at her in the blankest amazement. Mr Ringwood, horribly conscious of his unconventional attire, showed a craven desire to shrink into the background. It was Ferdy who first recovered his manners, and stepped forward, saying earnestly: “Anything in our power, Kitten! Gil not quite himself — shocking cold in his head! took a toss into a dyke, you know. Allow me to take your cloak!”
She relinquished it and gave up the birdcage to George, saying agitatedly: “Oh, thank you, Ferdy! I did not know you were here! And George! I am so very sorry you are not well, Gil, but what am I to do if you cannot help me, for I have nowhere to go, and no one to advise me, and I am quite desperate!”
“Good God!” exclaimed George, standing with the birdcage in his hand and staring at Hero. “How can this be? What — ”
Mr Ringwood pulled himself together, assured Hero that his cold was a thing of the past, and drew her towards the fire. “Do, pray, sit down, Kitten, and be calm! Of course I will help you!”
“All help you!” Ferdy interpolated. “Greatest pleasure on earth! No need to worry — not the least in the world!”
“She is chilled to the bone!” said Mr Ringwood, holding her small hands in his. “For God’s sake, George, put down that birdcage and pour her a drop of brandy!”
Hero allowed herself to be pressed into a seat by the fire, choked over the brandy, and said: “Oh, thank you, no more, if you please! It is only my hands that are cold, and there is such a wind outside!”
“You have not walked here?” exclaimed Ferdy, as though Half Moon Street were situated in the most remote quarter of the town.
“Yes, for what else could I do? Oh, Gil, promise me, promise me — all of you! — that you won’t give me up to Sherry!”
Three pairs of eyes were riveted to her face. “Not — not give you up — Kitten, have you gone mad?” stammered Mr Ringwood.
“No,” she replied, wringing her hands. “Indeed, I am not mad, Gil, though I shall be, or die, perhaps, if he finds me!”
Ferdy’s jaw dropped. He swallowed once or twice and then said in a soothing tone: “Thinking of someone else, Kitten! Not Sherry! Very good sort of a fellow, my cousin Sherry. Thought you liked him!”
George, who had been standing gripping the back of a chair, demanded in a voice which boded ill for the absent Viscount: “What has Sherry done to you?”
“He has not done anything yet. That is why I had to run away, to prevent him! I could not bear it, I could not!”
“By God!” George swore, his brilliant eyes beginning to smoulder. “Only tell me!”
Mr Ringwood emerged from his stupefaction at this point. He poured himself out some brandy, tossed it off, and set down the glass with the air of a man who was now competent to deal with any emergency. “Hold your tongue, George!” he commanded tersely. “So Sherry’s home, is he, Kitten?”
She nodded, two large tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I take it it’s this curst race of yours?”
“Yes. How could I have been so wicked and stupid as to — Oh, Ferdy, if I had but listened to you this morning!”
He shook his head sadly. “Pity,” he agreed. “Thought so at the time.”
“But even then it would have been too late, for Sherry says they are betting on me in the clubs, and my reputation is quite ruined! Everyone is talking of me, b-bandying my name about — ”
“Let anyone bandy your name about in my presence!” said George, grinding his teeth. “Only let them mention your name, that’s all I ask! I shall know what to do if Sherry don’t!”
“How did Sherry get wind of it?” interrupted Mr Ringwood.
“My cousin Jane wrote him an odious letter, and he came home at once, in such anger with me — ” She broke off, her voice becoming totally suspended by tears.
Mr Ringwood exchanged a glance with his friends. “Yes, well, you know, Kitten, can’t be surprised at that. Couldn’t expect Sherry not to be a trifle put out by this business, for it was not at all the thing. Going to tell you so myself, if Sherry had not come home.”
“Oh, Gil, it is far, far more than being put out! You do not know!”
Ferdy cleared his throat. “Got a quick temper, Sherry. It don’t mean anything: give you my word it don’t! Dare say he’s forgotten all about it by now.”
She dried her eyes. “He is not in a temper now. I could bear that! But he says it is all his fault for having married me, and we cannot go on in this manner, and his mind is made up that I must go to Sheringham Place so that his mother may teach me — may teach me — But I would sooner die!”
“Sheringham Place at this season?” said Ferdy, horrified. “I wouldn’t do that, Kitten! Wouldn’t care for it at all! Can’t think how Sherry came to take such a notion into his head. Absurd, that’s what it is! Absurd! Tell you what: I’ll go and have a word with Sherry. Agitation of the moment, you know: probably never thought what the place is like in winter.”
“It would be of no avail. I implored him not to send me there in disgrace, but he would not heed me. He said his mind was made up, and he should take me there tomorrow. He means to do so. But he shan’t, he shan’t! Lady Sheringham hates me, and she will tell everyone what I have done, and how I have ruined Sherry’s life, and when I saw his face tonight I knew that it was true! Oh, Gil, oh, Gil!”
“Did Sherry say that?” demanded George fiercely.
“No, no, but you do not know the whole! all the stupid things I have done, and now this! I can see that he is quite tired of it all, and wishes he had never run off with me. And I think he means to try to make the best of it, and he believes his mother will help him, but she will not! So I made up my mind to go away, but that I did not know where to go, and so I came to you, Gil, because I thought you would advise me.”
“But, Kitten, you can’t leave Sherry like that!” protested Ferdy. “I mean to say — married him — better or worse! Not the thing at all!”
“I know, but perhaps he will divorce me, and then he can be comfortable again,” explained Hero, on a forlorn sob.
“Good God, no!” cried Ferdy, shocked. “Never had anything like that in our family, Kitten! Besides — well, what I mean is, no reason to divorce you!”
George released the chair-back and strode purposefully to the door. “Where’s the sense in talking? I’m going to find Sherry, and when I do find him — ”
“Oh no, George! Pray, pray do not! George, I implore you do not!” shrieked Hero, turning very pale.
“Don’t put yourself about, Kitten! I give you my word, I won’t do more than mill him down. I’ll bring him here, and by God, I’ll make him grovel to you, so I will!”
Ferdy considered this proposition on its merits. “Shouldn’t think you would, George,” he said judicially. “Very handy with his fives, my cousin Sherry. Drew your cork the other day. Very likely to do it again. No wish to cast a rub in your way, dear boy, but there it is. What’s more, I’ve never known him to grovel to anyone. Mind you, I don’t say he wouldn’t, but I haven’t seen it. Wonderfully stiff-necked, all the Verelsts.”