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For Iris's sake his inquiry had to be conducted quite openly. His object must seem none other than the discovery of Lady Harry Norland's present address. When bankers, insurance companies, and solicitors altogether have to conduct a piece of business it is not difficult to ascertain such a simple matter.
"You wrote exactly in the form of words you promised me?" "Yes, exactly. I asked him to meet me here this morning at a quarter past twelve, in order to discuss a few points connected with Iris's future arrangements, before he left for America, and I wrote on the envelope, 'Immediate and important." "Very well. He will be sure to come, I think.
Then his horse came in and he held out his hand to the crestfallen jockey, whilst with his left he patted Iris's head. "Never mind, Dick," he said cheerfully, "you rode a fine race and the best horse won. Better luck next time." Several people approached Trent, but he turned away at once to Ernestine. "You will let me take you to Lady Tresham now," he said. "If you please," she answered quietly.
"Oh, she wasn't alone," said Lady Dacre kindly, "she had a gallant steed and a charioteer to take care of her. She was coming along in very fine style. I remember thinking, as I saw her, what a capital thing it was to be twelve years old." She laughed, and got up as she spoke to go away, perfectly unconscious of poor Iris's despair.
Somehow, the old man's Lancashire drawl, with its broad vowels and misplaced aspirates, exercised a singularly soothing effect on Iris's tensely-strung nerves. It seemed to remove her from that murder-filled arena.
As her guest left the room Mrs Fotheringham's darkest frown gathered on her forehead. "Did you meet Lady Dacre yesterday?" she asked, and then added coldly, "Perhaps it was one of Moore's daughters she mistook for you." For a brief moment the possibility of taking advantage of this idea darted through Iris's mind, but she let it go, and answered faintly: "I did meet her."
The portmanteau, with its change of raiment, brought convincing testimony, and Iris's own words when discovered in the lazaretto supplied further proof, if that were needed. Her name figured in the ship's papers, and the time of her appearance on board was recorded in the log.
When he comes home it will be his duty to inform the Governor that we are here. He will be rewarded, not punished. Sangue de Deus! I may be shot at dawn. I pray you, let me rest a while." The girl, Manoela, weeping out of sympathy, crept to Iris's side and gently stroked her hair. Like her mother, she could only guess that the English lady's friends were captured, perhaps dead.
He bowed his head in humble resignation, and he thought he was the victim of a cruel hallucination when Iris's tremulous accents reached his ears "Father, father! Don't you know me?" He stood up, amazed and trembling. "Yes, father dear. It is I, your own little girl given back to you. Oh dear! Oh dear! I cannot see you for my tears."
Lady Iris had left the drawing-room for a moment to see that all was right in the dining-room, and when he was shown in there stood alone in the lamplight Nichola Pine-Avon. She had been the first arrival. He had not in the least expected to meet her there, further than that, in a general sense, at Lady Iris's you expected to meet everybody.
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