An hour or two later, a return telegram came:--
"Our engagement remains exactly as it was. Nothing is changed. I
hold you to your promise. All tenderest messages. Letter
follows."
That answer calmed Dolly's mind a little. She began to think after
all,--if Walter still wanted her,--she loved him very much; she
could hardly dismiss him.
When she rose to go to bed, Herminia, very wistful, held out her
white face to be kissed as usual. She held it out tentatively.
Worlds trembled in the balance; but Dolly drew herself back with a
look of offended dignity. "Never!" she answered in a firm voice.
"Never again while I live. You are not fit to receive a pure
girl's kisses."
And two women lay awake all that ensuing night sobbing low on their
pillows in the Marylebone lodging-house.