"What the--"
"I've got my hack on the deck below," said one of the gaping crowd.
"She came in it. Better take her right down, sir. I never seen her
before but I seen she was a lady and tried to prevent her--"
"Lead the way.... I'll take her home," he said to the others. "And
let's keep this dark if we can."
When the hack reached the Occidental Hotel he gave the driver a
twenty-dollar gold piece and the man readily promised to "keep his
mouth shut." He told the night clerk that Mrs. Talbot had sprained
her ankle and fainted, and demanded a pass key if the doctor were
out. A bell boy opened the parlor door of the Talbot suite and
Colonel Belmont took off Madeleine's hat, placed her on the bed, and
then went in search of the doctor.
When Madeleine opened her eyes her husband was sitting beside her.
He poured some aromatic spirits of ammonia into a glass of water and
she drank it indifferently.
"How did I get here?" she asked.
He told her in the bitterest words he had ever used.
"You are utterly disgraced. Some of those men may hold their tongues
but others will not. By this time it is probably all over the Union
Club. You are an outcast from this time forth."
"That means nothing to me. And I warned you."
"It is nothing to you that you have disgraced me also, I suppose?"
"No.
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