One afternoon a note was brought to her. It
was from Fritz, saying that he had been "feeling a bit chippy," and the
doctor advised him to run over to Homburg. But he wished to know what she
meant to do. Would she go down to her father?--her mother, Lady St. Loo,
was dead, and her father was an old man--or what? Would she come to
Homburg too?
When she read those words she laughed out loud. Then she sent for the
/New York Herald/ and looked for the Homburg notes. She found Miss
Pimpernel Schley's name among the list of the newest arrivals. That
evening she wrote to her husband:
"Do not bother about me. Go to Homburg. I need rest and I want to
be alone. Perhaps I may go to some quiet place in Switzerland with
my maid. I'll let you know if I leave town. Good-bye.
"VIOLA HOLME."
At first she had put only Viola. Then she added the second word. Viola
alone suggested an intimacy which no longer existed between her and the
man she had married.
The next day Lord Holme crossed the Channel. She was left with the
servants.
Till then she had not been out of the house, but two days afterwards,
swathed in a thick veil, she went for a drive in the Park, and on
returning from it found Sir Donald on the door-step. He looked frailer
than ever and very old. Lady Holme would have preferred to avoid him.
Since that interview with her husband the idea of meeting anyone she knew
terrified her.
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