Part 18 (1/2)

I hesitated for a moment. I was recalling to myself her statement that she had no friends in London whatsoever.

”Yes!” I answered. ”Send up my name, and say that I should like to see her.”

The man went to the telephone, and emerged from the box a moment later.

”Miss Delora would be much obliged,” he said, ”if you would kindly go to her room in a quarter of an hour.”

I nodded, and turned away for the lift. The cigarette between my lips was suddenly tasteless. I was experiencing a new sensation, and distinctly an unpleasant one. With it was coupled an intense curiosity to know the ident.i.ty of the man who was even now with Felicia!

CHAPTER XIII

LOUIS, MAITRE D'HOTEL

I measured out that quarter of an hour into minutes, and almost into seconds. Then I knocked at the door of the sitting-room, and was bidden enter by Felicia Delora herself. She was alone, but she was dressed for the street, and was apparently just leaving the hotel again. Her clothes were of fas.h.i.+onable make, and cut with the most delightful simplicity. Her toilette was that of the ideal Frenchwoman who goes out for a morning's shopping, and may possibly lunch in the Bois. She was still very pale, however, and the dark lines under her eyes seemed to speak of a sleepless night. I fancied that she welcomed me a little shyly. She dropped her veil almost at once, and she did not ask me to sit down.

”I hope that you have some news this morning of your uncle, Miss Delora?” I asked.

She shook her head.

”I have not heard--anything of importance,” she answered.

”I am sorry,” I said. ”I am afraid that you must be getting very anxious.”

She bent over the b.u.t.ton of her glove.

”Yes,” she admitted. ”I am very anxious! I am very anxious indeed. I scarcely know what to do.”

”Tell me, then,” I said, ”why do you not let me go with you to the police and have some inquiries made? If you prefer it, we could go to a private detective. I really think that something ought to be done.”

She shook her head.

”I dare not,” she said simply.

”Dare not?” I repeated.

”Because when he returns,” she explained, ”he would be so very, very angry with me. He is a very eccentric man--my uncle. He does strange things, and he allows no one to question his actions.”

”But he has no right,” I declared hotly, ”to leave you like this in a strange hotel, without even a maid, without a word of farewell or explanation. The thing is preposterous!”

She had finished b.u.t.toning her gloves, and looked up at me with a queer little smile at the corner of her lips and her hands behind her.

”Capitaine Rotherby,” she said, ”there are so many things which it seems hard to understand. I myself am very unhappy and perplexed, but I do know what my uncle would wish me to do. He would wish me to remain quite quiet, and to wait.”

I was silent for a few moments. It was difficult to reason with her.

”You have been out this morning,” I said, a little abruptly.

”I have been out,” she admitted. ”I do not think, Capitaine Rotherby, that I must tell you where I have been, but I went to the one place where I thought that I might have news of him.”