CHAPTER 3Dr. Pulford brought Mrs. Varick around by simple measures. The poor woman then went off into a helpless, shaken weeping, very affecting to see. But notwithstanding her high position, her air of authority, she was a shallow woman. Her husband’s untimely end did not distress her so much as the threatened family disgrace. The girl, Estelle Gilsey, who never made a sound, took it much harder, really; but I couldn’t tell what was the nature of her feeling, whether grief, horror, fear or guilt.
Mrs. Varick’s whole cry was to keep it out of the newspapers. “Rosika, I depend on you for that,” she wept, fondling my employer’s hand.
“My own idea would be to keep it secret as long as possible,” said Mme. Storey dryly, “simply in order that the guilty person might not escape. However, the p
