“Well, I am sorry,” said Carrissima.  “I was carried away by excitement.  I suppose it’s a weakness of mine!  I sometimes do tell people things and repent afterwards.  I don’t pretend to be immaculate.”

“The fact is,” returned Mark, “you’ve always been down on Bridget.  The girl is absolutely straight!  What beats me is that you could meet me as usual, as if nothing had come between us, take my hand and yet believe all the time I was that sort of outsider.”

“And now,” exclaimed Carrissima, “you ask me to believe that not having seen Bridget for weeks you went to her house and took her in your arms against her will!  But there! what is the use of going over it all again?  I feel immensely angry with Sybil.  It is entirely her fault.  She promised faithfully never to say a word.”

“You beg the question in a rather womanly way,” said Mark.

“Well, what would you have?” cried Carrissima, flinging out her arms.  “I am a woman, you know.  I dare say I am not always consistent, if that’s what you mean.”

“I thought it best to come and see you,” answered Mark, with a shrug.

“Oh yes, by far the best,” said Carrissima, with a shiver.

With that he went away, and Carrissima sought her room, locking herself in.  She felt exceedingly angry with Sybil, and determined to write to her before the day ended.  As to Mark, it was true she had done him an injustice, but his conduct appeared as difficult to explain as ever.  Nothing which he had said made it any more comprehensible, and the only certainty seemed to be that a man could not conceivably love one woman and kiss another!

CHAPTER XXIV

A HOT SCENT

Mr. Joseph Dotting, having driven a hansom for several years, was compelled by force of circumstances to learn late in life to drive a taxi-cab or perish.  He was not a man who, as a rule, took any absorbing interest in the events of the day, with the occasional exception, perhaps, of an exciting murder case; but he was always a close student of starting prices.

Having been ordered to wait outside Marshall and Snelgrove’s on Tuesday morning, however, the two ladies whom he had driven from Eccleston Square kept him so long that he took Monday’s 6.30 edition of the Evening News from beneath his seat.  Happening to glance through the advertisement colums, his attention became presently arrested by the offer of Five Pounds reward.

“Dashed if that ain’t the party I drove to Blackheath the other afternoon,” he said half aloud.  “Leastways, I picked her up in Golfney Place whether it was Number 5 or not.  ’Tain’t likely there was two of ’em!”

Mr. Joseph Botting felt certain that he could recognize the house again, and when at last the two ladies came forth from the shop, followed by a boy who was laden with many small parcels, Mr. Botting, in his haste to set them down at Eccleston Square again, put more than one life in peril.