Page:Wildwildheart00reesiala.pdf/219

writing to any one. I didn’t stay more than a week in Sydney. It was too hot. I went on to Melbourne, found that hotter, and so crossed to Tasmania. I’ve been there nearly all the time.”

“Where’s Mrs. Holmes now?”

“My good child, how should I know? I presume she’s still in Sydney, as she doesn’t seem to have come back to New Zealand.”

Ann was silent. She couldn’t go on questioning him like this unless she wished him to realize that she knew his secret. She could only fill in the blanks as best she might. When Vera followed him to Sydney, had he gone off leaving no address? That would be a perfectly simple method of procedure—rather cruel perhaps; but Ann believed that before his departure from Tirau he had made it plain to Vera that things were at an end between them. If Vera wouldn’t accept this ultimatum from him—if she had persisted in her resolve to see him again—hadn’t she brought this upon her own head? And yet in her heart Ann was conscious of pity for the forsaken woman. How terrible to be driven to pursue a man in this fashion—to lose all pride, all self-respect. And was this divorce action her last desperate effort to regain her lover? Was she mad enough to believe that a man who had tired would come back to her and marry her? But then it was more than likely that Vera would not allow herself to believe that his love had grown cold. In all probability Waring had used the argument that it was for her sake he was giving her up. That they mustn’t run the risk of detection. A woman in love was fool enough to believe anything! But Ann couldn’t help ranging herself on the forsaken woman’s side against the faithless lover. Not that she held any