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Updated: June 25, 2025
As I stood on the doorstep, with the bell handle still in my hand, the door was suddenly opened. It was Delora himself who appeared! He shrank away from me as though I were something poisonous. I laid my hand on his shoulder, firmly determined that this time there should be no escape. "Mr. Delora," I said, "I want a few words with you. Can I have them now?" "I am busy!" he answered.
Delora, and abandoned all your inquiries?" "No, Louis," I answered, "unless I were convinced that Miss Delora herself was implicated in these things. Then you could all go to the devil for anything I cared!" "Your interest," Louis murmured, "is in the young lady, then?" "Absolutely and entirely," I answered.
What she said to him I do not know, for I returned to my place. "They will not eat," I whispered to Lamartine. "Tell me, who is the man?" "Hush!" Lamartine said. "Look there!" Apparently angry words had been passing between Felicia and Delora.
I asked, "has he ever turned up yet?" "Not yet, sir. The young lady said that they were expecting him now every day." "Telephone up and see if Miss Delora is in, Ashley," I asked. He disappeared for a moment into his office. "No answer, sir," he announced presently. "I believe that they are out."
I was at once certain that he had known of my visit, and had come to see what it might mean. "Monsieur has returned very soon," he remarked, bowing pleasantly. "My journey was not a long one, Louis," I answered. "What have you brought that thing for?" I continued, pointing to the menu card. "Do you want an order for dinner? Miss Delora is dining elsewhere with me!"
"With pleasure!" I answered. I paused for a moment to give some instructions about my own luggage. Then I stepped into the lift with the clerk and her. "Your uncle, I hope, is not seriously indisposed, Miss Delora?" he asked. "Oh, no!" she answered. "He found the crossing very rough, and he is not very strong. But I do not think that he is really ill."
Helmsley," I said, "you know that I am not, as a rule, a curious person, and I should not like to ask you any questions which you thought improper ones, but you have some guests staying here in whom I am somewhat interested." Mr. Helmsley nodded, and by his genial silence invited me to proceed. "I mean Mr. Delora and his niece," I continued. The smile faded from the manager's face.
I was to enter, somehow or other, the room in which Mr. Delora was supposed to be, to remain there concealed, and to await this attack which, for some reason or other, they were expecting. And then, as the possibilities connected with such an event spread themselves out before me, my sense of humor suddenly asserted itself, and, to Louis' amazement, I laughed in his face.
They took the two corner seats at the further end of the carriage. Delora immediately composed himself to sleep. "It was a wretched crossing!" he said to the girl, "the most miserable crossing I have ever had! And these trains, so small, so uncomfortable!" She shrugged her shoulders. "When one travels," she said, "I suppose that one must put up with inconveniences of all sorts."
Louis disappeared from the room for the moment. I heard the outer door softly opened and closed. Then he came back into the sitting-room, followed by the man who had stood by our side at Charing Cross Station. The latter looked around the room quickly, and seemed disappointed to find it empty. "I understood that Mr. Delora was here," he said. "Mr. Delora is in his bedroom," Louis answered.
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