Part 14 (2/2)
”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.”
”It is a year since we last had the pleasure,” the clerk continued.
She nodded.
”My uncle was over then,” she remarked. ”For me this is the first time. I have never been in England before.”
The lift stopped.
”What floor are we on?” the girl asked.
”The fifth,” the clerk answered. ”We have quite comfortable rooms for you, and the aspect that your uncle desired.”
We pa.s.sed along the corridor and he opened the door, which led into a small hall and on into a sitting-room. The clerk opened up all the rooms.
”You will see, as I told you before, Miss Delora,” he said, ”that there is no one here. Your uncle's rooms open out from the right. The bathroom is to the left there, and beyond are your apartments.”
She peered into each of the rooms. They were indeed empty.
”The apartments are very nice,” she said, ”but I do not understand what has become of my uncle.”
”He will be up in a few minutes, without a doubt,” the clerk remarked. ”Is there anything more that I can do for you, madam? Shall I send the chambermaid or the waiter to you?”
”Not yet,” she answered. ”I must wait for my uncle. Will you leave word below that he is to please come up directly he arrives?”
”Certainly, madam!” the clerk answered, turning towards the door.
I should have followed him from the room, but she stopped me.
”Please don't go,” she said. ”I am very foolish, I know, but I am afraid!”
”I will stay, of course,” I answered, sitting down by her side upon the couch, ”but let me a.s.sure you that there is nothing whatever to fear. Your uncle may have had a slight cab accident, or he may have met with a friend and stopped to talk for a few minutes. In either case he will be here directly. London, you know, is not the city of mysteries that Paris is. There is very little, indeed, that can happen to a man between Charing Cross Station and the Milan Hotel.”
She leaned forward a little and buried her face in her hands.
”Please don't!” I begged. ”Indeed, I mean what I say! There is no cause to be anxious. Your uncle spoke of stopping at a chemist's. They may be making up his prescription. A hundred trivial things may have happened to keep him.”
”You do not know!” she murmured.
CHAPTER XI
THROUGH THE TELEPHONE
There was no doubt about it that Delora had disappeared. I followed the reception clerk downstairs myself within the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes, and made the most careful inquiries in every part of the hotel. It did not take me very long to ascertain, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he was not upon the premises, nor had he yet been seen by any one connected with the place. I even walked to the corner of the courtyard and looked aimlessly up and down the Strand. Within those few hundred yards which lay between where I was standing and Charing Cross something had happened which had prevented his reaching the hotel. It may have been the slightest of accidents. It might be something more serious. Or it might even be, I was forced to reflect, that he had never intended coming! Presently I returned to the suite of rooms upon the fifth floor to make my report to Miss Delora. I found her calmer than I had expected, but her face fell when I was forced to confess that I had heard no news.
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