So it was that she threw herself upon Janet. Whatever had been their
relations in their girlhood, each was to the other the remnant of the
old home and of better days, and in their stolen interviews they met
like sisters. Janet knew as little as Elvira did of her own family,
rather less indeed, but she declared Mrs. Gould's horror about the
expedition with Gilbert to have been pure dissimulation, and soon
enabled Elvira to prove to herself that it had been a concerted
trick. In America it would go for nothing. Even in England, so mere
an accident (even if it had really been an accident) would not tell
against her. But then, Elvira hopelessly said Allen was married!
Again Janet was incredulous, and when she found that Elvira had never
seen the letter in which Kate Gould was supposed to have sent the
information, and knew it only upon Lisette's assertion, she declared
it to be probably a fabrication. Why not telegraph? So in Elvira's
name and at her expense, but with the address given to Janet's abode,
the telegram was sent to Mr. Wakefield's office, and in a few hours
the reply had come back: "Allen Brownlow not married, nor likely to
be."
There was no doubt now of the web of falsehood that had entangled the
poor girl; but she would probably have been too inert and helpless to
break through it, save for her energetic cousin, who nerved her to
escape from the life of utter misery that lay before her.
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