19
Iona went away with a stately step, but with a brain on fire. It was only when near the Arcade that she quickened her steps; and when inside the door, she ran upstairs.
Having found Elena, “I am going out to the Olives for a few days,” she said, “and I want to start at once for the Pines. Will you have Isadore called to go with me? I will meet him at the water-gate.”
She waited for no reply, but hastened to her own room. In a few minutes she came out dressed in the gray costume of labor.
“Everything is ready,” Elena said, meeting her, and expressed neither surprise nor curiosity.
The sun had set, and it was night when Iona met the men who had been sent up to attend her. But she would suffer them to go no farther than the water-gate.
“I know the road well,” she said, “and am in no
