The Five-Minute Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

pursue their advances any further.
    But she did not find Mrs. Carteret. One or two of the jewelers were known to her, for it was in their emporiums that she had been obliged to dispose of some of her mother ’ s few last good pieces; but they all denied having set eyes on her mother.
    Nor, apparently, had Mrs. Carteret ordered any provisions at Fordham ’ s, in Piccadilly—which was something of a relief—nor had she been to Hatchard ’ s bookshop nor to Allardyce ’ s library.
    Delphie began to fear that she must have taken the opposite direction; once or twice in the delirium of her illness she had been heard to murmur that she “ must very soon pay a visit to my brokers in the City ” ; no such brokers, to the best of Delphie ’ s knowledge, existed; certainly Mrs. Carteret had had dealings with none in the last fifteen years, but if she had taken it into her head to proceed in the direction of Threadneedle Street or Petty Cury, the hope of discovering her was scanty indeed, for the older part of London was such a warren of small thoroughfares that a person might be lost within them for weeks on end.
    To add to Delphie ’ s despair, a thin rain was beginning to fall.
    “ Perhaps she may take a hackney cab home, ” Delphie thought. The expense would be a crippling addition to their strained exchequer, but better that than the poor lady should be soaked through in her flimsy silk and muslin.
    Delphie herself was insufficiently equipped for a wetting, and she turned homeward, somewhat hopelessly scanning the Oxford Street shops and the stalls of Brewer Street market again as she passed. Most of the stall-holders knew her, but none of them were able to give her tidings of her quarry.
    At last, very despondent, she arrived back at the rooms in Greek Street and saw at once, from Miss Anne ’ s downcast look and Miss Jenny ’ s expression of guilty despair, that her mother had not returned while she herself had been out.
    “ Should we inform the constables? ” quavered Jenny. “ She has not been out for so long since her illness! Indeed and indeed I ’ m sorry, Miss Delphie—I could beat my head in the dust for shame — but there! What good would that do? ”
    “ Not the least bit of good in the world! ” snapped Miss Anne. “ You had better by far brew Miss Delphie a cup of Bohea; she looks worn to a thread-paper. ”
    “ I do not like to call in the constables unless the case seems desperate, ” said Delphie, gratefully accepting the proffered beverage, which was indeed welcome, for she had had nothing since her scanty breakfast of one piece of bread and butter. “ I know Mamma would be dreadfully ashamed and overset to think we had taken such a step. I will wait a little longer. When I have drunk my tea I shall put on a pelisse and search around Seven Dials and Drury Lane; I have not yet looked in that direction, knowing Mamma ’ s preference for the more fashionable part of London. ”
    “ Oh, no, Miss Delphie, you didn ’ t ought to think of going out again! ” scolded Jenny. “ Why, you are quite fagged out already — white as cheesecloth, ain ’ t she, Sister, and your bonnet all soaked. That straw will never be good for anything after this! ”
    “ But I must go out, ” said Delphie. “ I cannot bear to think of her, perhaps lost, somewhere in this downpour ” —for the rain had come on more heavily and was turning to a real spring deluge.
    Out, despite all their remonstrances, she went, clad in a worn old tartan pelisse, and wearily made a reconnaissance of Charing Cross, Covent Garden, and Drury Lane, even going so far east as Hol born and Chancery Lane. Once or twice she thought what a fortunate occurrence it was that many of the families whose children were her pupils had at present gone out of town for the Easter Holiday; at least it meant that lessons were few and far between. Her income, in consequence, was sadly depleted, but no indignant pupils were being deprived of their