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It is something to have a case that can be argued at all; morality has a sad habit of leaving us without a leg to stand on. In the afternoon of that day Duplay went down to Fairholme. Miss Swinkerton passed him on the road and smiled sagaciously. Oh, if Miss S. had known the truth about his errand! A gossip in ignorance has pathos as a spectacle.
Then with unrivalled effrontery she declared that she had forgotten to call at the grocer's, and marched off. In an hour the new and complete version of the affair was all over the town. Mrs Trumbler had got first to Fairholme, but she did not wrest the laurels from Miss S.'s brow.
It is a most curious fact that young ladies in the engaged stage regard their fiancé's male friends with extreme suspicion; the more enthusiastic the man, the more suspicious the woman. Fairholme, sublimely unconscious of this feminine weakness, continued to dilate upon the superlative excellences of Daubeney until they reached the yacht itself.
"The Earl of Fairholme, Stanhope Gate." "Curious," thought Brett. "Where is his lordship?" he said aloud "at the door, or in the street?" "In a keb, sir." "Bring his lordship up." A rapid glance at "Debrett" revealed that the Earl of Fairholme was thirty, unmarried, the fourteenth of his line, and the possessor of country seats at Fairholme, Warwickshire, and Glen Spey, Inverness.
On their way to the hotel, Brett, yielding apparently to a momentary impulse, stopped the cab at a house in the Rue du Chaussée d'Antin. Without any explanation to Lord Fairholme he disappeared into the interior, and did not rejoin his companion for nearly ten minutes. "It is perhaps not of much use," he explained on his return, "but I do not like to leave any stone unturned.
"The only point that remains is where is Lord Medenham now?" "Somewhere between here an' Gloucester, my lord," said Simmonds. "Gloucester that is not on the way to London!" No reply; neither man was willing to bell the cat. Finding Simmonds a tough customer, Fairholme tackled Dale. "Come, come, this is rather absurd," he cried. "Fancy my son's chauffeur jibbing at my questions!
Our only chance is that we may be able to guess the course of the hidden trail. If to-night does not yield us some information, our chances of solving the mystery will be remote, in which case we may as well abandon the quest." This faint-hearted reply naturally surprised Lord Fairholme considerably.
Soon Brett and Fairholme found themselves in the street, and again did the barrister draw in deep and invigorating draughts of Paris air. "Where now?" said Fairholme. "Tell me," cried Brett eagerly, "did you notice in which direction the little man ran who left No. 11 about ten minutes ago?" "Better than that, I heard where he was going to.
A smartly-attired sailor was pretending to find some work in carefully uncoiling a rope which did not satisfy his critical eye. Before Fairholme could hail the man, a rotund form, encased in many yards of blue serge, surmounted by a jolly-looking face on top of which was perched an absurdly small yachting cap, emerged from the companion. "Why, there he is," shouted the earl. "Halloa, Daubeney!
Fairholme arrived first, exclaiming: "Fearful shower!" and briskly turned his back to the ladies in order to stand at the edge of the veranda and shake the water out of his hat. Josephs came next, shrinking from the damp contact of his own garments. He cringed to Miss Wilson, and hoped that she had escaped a wetting. "So far I have," she replied. "The question is, how are we to get home?"
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