As he raised the
lid, he heard the door behind him, the one door in the room, locked
from the outer side.
He rushed to the door, and called to her. From the farther end of the
corridor, her voice reached him for the last time, repeating the last
melancholy word: "Good-bye." No renewal of the miserable parting scene:
no more of the heartache--Iris had ended it!
CHAPTER XXII
THE FATAL WORDS
WHEN Mountjoy had rung for the servant, and the bedroom door had been
unlocked, it was too late to follow the fugitive. Her cab was waiting
for her outside; and the attention of the porter had been distracted,
at the same time, by a new arrival of travellers at the hotel.
It is more or less in the nature of all men who are worthy of the name,
to take refuge from distress in action. Hugh decided on writing to
Iris, and on making his appeal to her father, that evening. He
abstained from alluding, in his letter, to the manner in which she had
left him; it was her right, it was even her duty to spare herself. All
that he asked was to be informed of her present place of residence, so
that he might communicate the result--in writing only if she preferred
it--of his contemplated interview with her father.
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