Part 9 (1/2)

”And how long is it since you last saw her?”

”A year.”

”A year! Why, you must have utterly forgotten what she looks like.

Should you be able to recognize her, if you were to meet her in a crowd?”

”Oh yes,” said Harry, with a laugh. ”Now you must know that when I was engaged I expected to go to England in about three months' time to get married. Business, however, detained me. I hoped to go again, a few months later. But the fact is, I found it impossible; and so on for a whole year I was detained, until at last I had to write, imploring her to come out to me and be married in Barcelona.”

”Well, for my part, I never would marry a man unless he came for me,”

said Katie.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Here Stood The Leader Of The Band.”]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”They Then Fell Behind The Wagon, Walking At A Slow Pace.”]

”Then I'm glad,” said Harry, ”that you are not Miss Talbot. She was not so cruel as that; for though at first she refused, she at last consented and promised to come. This, however, was only after long begging on my part, and a full explanation of the difficulties of my position. So she consented, and finally mentioned a certain day on which she would leave; and that was about a fortnight ago.

”Now, you know, all the time, I felt awfully about her having to come on alone, until at length, as ill-luck would have it, it so happened that I was able to steal a few days from my business. So I determined, after all, to go on for her. Fool that I was, I didn't telegraph! There was no time to write, of course. You see, I was such an idiot that I only thought of giving her a pleasant surprise. This filled my mind and occupied all my thoughts, and all the way on I was chuckling to myself over my scheme; and I kept fancying how delighted she would be at finding that, after all, she would not have to make the journey alone. I was so full of this that I couldn't think of anything else. And now I should like to ask you calmly, Miss Westlotorn, one simple question: Did you ever hear in all your life of such a perfect and unmitigated chuckle-head?”

”Never!” said Katie, in a demure tone.

”Well,” continued Harry, ruefully, ”luck was against me. I met with several delays of a tedious kind, and lost in all about two days. At last I got to my destination, and then--then--in one word, there came a thunder-clap. What do you think?”

”What?”

”She was gone!”

”Gone?”

”Yes. She had gone the day before my arrival. She had written again, and had telegraphed. She had then set out, expecting me to receive her with all a lover's eagerness at Barcelona, at the hotel which I had mentioned to her in my last letter, and hoping also that I might possibly turn up at any station after pa.s.sing the Pyrenees. What do you think of that? Wasn't that a blow? And was it my fault?”

”Certainly not,” said Katie, in a soothing voice. ”Not your fault, only your misfortune. But what did her friends say?”

”Her friends? Oh, they were awfully indignant, of course, but I couldn't wait to explain it all to them. The moment I found out how it was, I turned on my heel and hurried back to Barcelona. I travelled night and day. I got there without any interruption, and rushed to the hotel where, according to my direction, she was to have gone.”

”Well,” asked Katie, as Harry paused, ”was she there?”

”No,” said Harry; ”but, worst of all, she had been there! Yes, she had been there. She had made the journey; she had reached Barcelona; and I--I, for whom she had come, I was not there to meet her. Well, when I did get back she was gone.”

”Gone?--gone where?”

”Why, where else could she have gone but home again?”

”True. Being a girl of spirit, she never could stand such treatment as that. But did she leave no message for you?”

”Not a word, either in writing or in any other way. I asked the hotel people about her, but they knew nothing in particular. She had not told anything about herself. She had come, and, after two or three days, had gone. She had gone only the day before I got back.”

”And you, of course, must have started after her all the way back to England, and that's the reason why you are here--”