He called
a cab, and drove to the Temple; while poor Adela went back to the
splendid gloom of Cavendish-square, with all the fabric of her future
life shattered.
Until this hour she had looked upon John Saltram's fidelity to herself as
a certainty; she knew, now that her hope was slain all at once, what a
living thing it had been, and how great a portion of her own existence
had taken its colour therefrom.
It was fortunate for Mrs. Branston that Mrs. Pallinson's toothache, and
the preparations and medicaments supplied to her by her son--all declared
to be infallible, and all ending in ignominious failure--occupied that
lady's attention at this period, to the exclusion of every other thought,
or Adela's pale face might have excited more curiosity than it did. As it
was, the matron contented herself by making some rather snappish remarks
upon the folly of going out to drive late on a January afternoon, and
retired to administer poultices and cataplasms to herself in the solitude
of her own apartment soon after dinner, leaving Adela Branston free to
ponder upon John Saltram's cruelty.
"If he had only trusted me," she said to herself more than once during
those mournful meditations; "if he had only given me credit for some
little good sense and generosity, I should not feel it as keenly as I do.
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