"
He watched her open her purse and take out a yellow slip, which she
handed to him.
"Don't take the step planned. Imperative reasons forbid. Rose."
he read slowly; then he looked up. "Well?" he said.
"What does she mean?" burst forth Eleanor. "How dared she send me a
message like that unless she knew something----"
She broke off abruptly and her eyes searched Quin's face. But he was
apparently counting the grains of sugar that were going into his coffee,
and refused to look up.
"If it had been grandmother or Aunt Isobel I shouldn't have been in the
least surprised; they are just a bunch of prejudices and believe every
idle story they hear. But Rose is different. She's known about Harold and
me for months. She forwarded his letters to me when I was in Baltimore.
And now for her to turn against me like this----"
"Why don't you wait till you hear her side of it?" suggested Quin, still
concerned with the sugar-bowl.
"How can I?" cried Eleanor, flinging out her hands. "I've no place to go,
and I've no money. If I had had money enough I'd have gone straight to
Papa Claude last night."
Quin's heart gained a beat. He made a hurried calculation of his
financial resources in the vain hope that that might yet be the solution
of the difficulty.
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