Champagne for One

"Then I don’t have to explain it. A few days after I had noticed that she wasn’t at Cordoni’s a friend of mine told me-his name is Austin Byne, and he is Mrs Robilotti’s nephew-he told me that he had been at Grantham House the day before on an errand for Mrs Robilotti and had seen a girl there that he recognized. He said I might recognize her too-the girl with the little oval face and green eyes who used to work at Cordoni’s. I told him I doubted it, that I didn’t remember her. But I-"

"Was Mr Byne’s tone or manner suggestive?"

"No. I didn’t think-I’m sure it wasn’t. But I wondered. Naturally. It had been eight months since the trip to Canada, and I did not believe that she had been promiscuous. I decided that I must see her and talk with her. I prefer to think that my chief reason was my feeling of obligation, but I don’t deny that I also wanted to know if she had found out who I was, and if so whether she had told anyone or was going to. In arranging to see her I took every possible precaution. Shall I tell you exactly how I managed it?"

"Later, perhaps."

"All right, I saw her. She said that she had agreed to meet me only because she wanted to tell rne that she never wanted to see me or hear from me again. She said she didn’t hate me-I don’t think she was capable of hate-but that I meant only one thing to her, a mistake that she would never forgive herself for, and that she only wanted to blot me out. Those were her words: ‘blot you out’. She said her baby would be given for adoption and would never know who its parents were. I had money with me, a lot of it, but she wouldn’t take a cent. I didn’t raise the question whether there could be any doubt that I was the father. You wouldn’t either, if it had been you, with her, the way she was."

He stopped and set his jaw. After a moment he released it. "That was when I decided to quit playing around. I made an anonymous contribution to Grantham House. I never saw her again until last night. I didn’t kill her. I am convinced she killed herself, and I hope to God my being there, seeing me again, wasn’t what made her do it."