A moment later, she looked around again, and still not seeing the nurse told the man to wait for her to come up to them.
“Why, the other lady is ahead, ma’am, I’ll catch up to her,” and he moved her chair more quickly.
Elsie looked about with a sudden thrill of alarm, and saw no sign of the nurse anywhere.
“Here we are, ma’am, she just went in here,” the man stopped the chair in front of a tall hotel.
“Yes’m, the lady who belongs with you,—the nurse, ma’am, she went in here in great haste and motioned for you to follow her. Better go in, ma’am.”
Bewildered, Elsie allowed herself to be assisted from the chair and ushered inside, not thinking at the moment that it was strange for the chair-pusher to be so officious.
“What in the world did Miss Loring come in here for?” she asked, as they stood a moment in the hall.
“I don’t know, ma’am, but I just saw her go up in this elevator. She beckoned for you to follow.”
Elsie hesitated a moment, but it was a first class hotel, not a large building but a tall one, and handsomely appointed.
She got into the elevator, the man following, indeed, urging her in by a guiding hand on her elbow.
“Tenth,” he said to the elevator girl, and the car shot upward.
It was not until they were walking along the corridor on the tenth floor that Elsie felt a thrill of fear. What did it mean? Surely Miss Loring never came up here,—expecting Elsie to follow!
“Here you are,” and as they reached a closed door, the man swung it open and led Elsie firmly inside. “Sorry, Miss, but I’m only obeying orders. Good-bye.” He jerked off his cap, closed the door behind him and went away, leaving Elsie alone, in a strange room in a strange house.
She flew to the door, but she could not open it. She was trapped,—and she had walked into a trap, unresistingly, in broad daylight!
She went to the window and looked out. The familiar sight of the ocean and the boardwalk cheered her. She didn’t know what she was to experience next, but she felt a sense of relief at sight of the throngs of people.
She was alone in the room for what seemed hours but was not more than twenty minutes when the door was flung open and in rushed,—not the man with the gold teeth, whom she had rather expected to see,—but Fenn Whiting.