ence came to him. "But I tell you that ever since I let that train with you puff away from me at Southampton, I haven't scrupled at searching even the cathedral towns to have a chance to find you again. Really, I've searched the registers of every hotel, inn, and pension where there was any possibility of finding you. And then, just as I had almost decided that you weren't on land, but were an incredible sort of mermaid person whom one finds only at sea, I find you—"
"I find you," the girl laughed gayly, cutting him off. "After staying at the same inn with us for fourteen hours, you let me find you!"
"At the same inn, Miss Varris?"
"Yes; mother and I came last evening. But we had written for our rooms in advance and, as mother was tired, went to them at once without registering. And we went out to the police station early this morning before you came down; so there's nothing for you to explain away."
"Then I wasn't quite so—lacking, was I?
31
