She would have gone superstitiously to the window to gaze in the direction of the vanished ship, but another instinct restrained her.  She would put aside all yearning for him until she had done something to help him, and earned the confidence he seemed to have withheld.  Perhaps it was pride—­perhaps she never really believed his exodus was distant or complete.

With a full knowledge that to-morrow the various ornaments and pretty trifles around her would be in the hands of the law, she gathered only a few necessaries for her flight and some familiar personal trinkets.  I am constrained to say that this self-abnegation was more fastidious than moral.  She had no more idea of the ethics of bankruptcy than any other charming woman; she simply did not like to take with her any contagious memory of the chapter of the life just closing.  She glanced around the home she was leaving without a lingering regret; there was no sentiment of tradition or custom that might be destroyed; her roots lay too near the surface to suffer dislocation; the happiness of her childless union had depended upon no domestic center, nor was its flame sacred to any local hearthstone.  It was without a sigh that, when night had fully fallen, she slipped unnoticed down the staircase.  At the door of the drawing-room she paused, and then entered with the first guilty feeling of shame she had known that evening.  Looking stealthily around, she mounted a chair before her husband’s picture, kissed the irreproachable mustache hurriedly, said, “You foolish darling, you!” and slipped out again.  With this touching indorsement of the views of a rival philosopher, she closed the door softly and left her home forever.

II.

The wind and rain had cleared the unfrequented suburb of any observant lounger, and the darkness, lit only by far-spaced, gusty lamps, hid her hastening figure.  She had barely crossed the second street when she heard the quick clatter of hoofs behind her; a buggy drove up to the curbstone, and Poindexter leaped out.  She entered quickly, but for a moment he still held the reins of the impatient horse.  “He’s rather fresh,” he said, eying her keenly:  “are you sure you can manage him?”

“Give me the reins,” she said simply.

He placed them in the two firm, well-shaped hands that reached from the depths of the vehicle, and was satisfied.  Yet he lingered.

“It’s rough work for a lone woman,” he said, almost curtly, “I can’t go with you, but, speak frankly, is there any man you know whom you can trust well enough to take?  It’s not too late yet; think a moment!”

He paused over the buttoning of the leather apron of the vehicle.

“No, there is none,” answered the voice from the interior; “and it’s better so.  Is all ready?”

“One moment more.”  He had recovered his half bantering manner.  “You have a friend and countryman already with you, do you know?  Your horse is Blue Grass.  Good-night.”