Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/168

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unaware that the two slight bows of departure had definitely not included him.

The spacious lounge filled rapidly after dinner; but Mme. Momoro was not to be seen there; nor in the "Palm Garden," where there was dancing later; nor in the smoking-room, which was almost vacant all evening, though three young men haunted it hopefully from time to time. The youthful Hyacinthe appeared on the promenade deck alone, wrapped like an American collegian in a coat of coonskin and pacing composedly;—he was unaware of being an object of interest, or that he was kept in sight discreetly but without intermission until he retired to his cabin. Not until late in the evening did Ogle despond, and then an uncomfortable suspicion came into his mind. Still roving bleakly on deck, he glanced for the fiftieth time through a window of the lounge and came to a halt. There were only two people in the place: Mrs. Tinker busy at a writing-desk, and her daughter seated near her and looking with an air of permanent stubbornness at nothing.

In his wanderings about the ship the playwright had not seen Tinker. Could that imply a possible coincidence? With a most distasteful impression that it could, he decided impulsively to show the