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"Because we know that the smell of malgamite will be blown out to sea," he explained; and she gave a little nod of comprehension. "You think of everything," she said, without enthusiasm. "No; I only think of you," he answered, with a little laugh, which indeed was his method of making love. For fear of Mrs. Vansittart laughing at him, he laughed at love a very common form of cowardice.
To Gravesend I went by train, but only to see her topmasts far off, with a plume of smoke from a tug in front of her. I would hear no more of my friend until I rejoined him at Falmouth. When I got back to my offices, a telegram was awaiting me from Mrs. Vansittart, asking me to meet her; and next evening found us both at the Royal Hotel, Falmouth, where we were to wait for the Eastern Star.
"Yes," answered Cornish, reluctantly; "but I think you would be wiser to leave Von Holzen to me." "Ah!" said Mrs. Vansittart, with one of her quick glances. "You think that." She paused on the threshold, then shrugged her shoulders and passed out. She hurried home, and there wrote a note to Percy Roden. "It seems a long time since I saw you last, though perhaps it only seems so to me.
"We're off to the Pool." Mr. Vansittart shouted an emphatic negative, and the two young fellows started off by themselves. Charlie's manner was affected by the ceremonious courtesy which a well-bred host betrays towards a guest not very well-beloved, but Victor did not notice this. It seldom occurred to him that people did not like him. "Yes," he was saying, "I'm just twenty-nine.
"No, I was not thinking of Mrs. Vansittart." "Not worth thinking about," suggested Roden, adhering to his method of laughing for fear of being laughed at, which is common enough in very young men; but Roden should have outgrown it by this time. "Not seriously." "What do you mean, Dorothy?" "That I hope you do not think seriously of asking Mrs. Vansittart to marry you."
Vansittart, sharply, with a movement of the head indicative of supreme contempt. "No," admitted White. "Better hide ourselves, perhaps. No good standing here where everybody can see us. I'll fetch our friend. Think he'll sleep if we let him. Chemist gave him enough to kill a horse." "But haven't you any plans?" asked Mrs. Vansittart, in despair. "What are you going to do?
None of the malgamite workers recognized him; indeed, he saw none of those whom he had brought across to The Hague, and he did not care to ask too many questions. At length, as we have seen, he arrived at the conclusion that Von Holzen's schemes had been too deeply laid to allow of attack by subtler means, and as a preliminary to further action called on Mrs. Vansittart.
He knew them by the smell of their clothes, and guessed their intention readily enough. It was a strange scene, and one that left the two women, watching it, breathless and eager. "Oh, I wish I were a man!" exclaimed Mrs. Vansittart, with clenched fists. They hurried toward Cornish and White, who were now alone on the path.
He turned on his heel, walked to the door, and, locking it, slipped the key into his pocket. Then he returned to Mrs. Vansittart. Neither spoke. No explanation was at that moment necessary. He lifted the table bodily, and set it aside against the wall. Then he went slowly towards her, holding out his hand for the unaddressed envelope, which she held behind her back.
And his lordship's condescending air certainly seemed to suggest that the street, if not the whole city, belonged to him. Mr. Wade pointed with his thick thumb in the direction in which Lord Ferriby was driving. "Where is he going?" he asked bluntly. "To the malgamite works," replied Mrs. Vansittart, with significance. And Mr. Wade made no comment. Mrs. Vansittart spoke first.