Part 30 (2/2)
”You will return to Russia?”
”Why, yes; I ht have told me would have made no difference to that deteryour life away!” he remonstrated
”I think not, and it's not very valuable, anyway I thank you for your story, sir; it helps s a bit,--Anne's ives me a little hope that they may have escaped, for the tihborhood well, or he couldn't have turned up at that et her safely back to Petersburg, he could claih--”
”If he had been able to do that, surely he or she would have co the thought that was in my ownYou'll not let et even a hint of what I've told you, Mr Treherne? If she finds out that Pencarrow belongs to Mr Pendennis, she'll surely cross-question you about him, and Mary's so sharp that she'll see at once you're concealing so from her, if you're not very discreet”
”Thanks for the warning I promise you that I'll be very discreet, Mr
Wynn,” he assured s should be!”
It did seem incredible, there in that peaceful old-world room, with never a sound to break the silence but the lazy murmur of the waves, far below; heard faintly but distinctly,--a weird,
We parted cordially; he caht offer to walk some of the ith s up in ave me a clue to her motives, there was much that still perplexedof Russia,--had never been there? Well, doubtless that was partly for Mary's own sake, to spare her anxiety, and partly because of the vital necessity for secrecy; but a mere evasion would have served as well as the direct assertion,--I hated to call it a lie even in my own mind! And why, oh why had she not trusted me, let me serve her; for she knew, shebetter than that!
But I could coainst the churchyard wall, gazing out over the sea, dark and ht made a silver track across the calm surface As well try to fathom the secret of the sea as the mystery that enshrouded Anne Pendennis!
On one point only I was more resolved than ever,--to return to Russia at the earliest possible moment
CHAPTER xxxI
MISHKA TURNS UP
”You , Maurice,” Mary declared at breakfast-tiot back You bad boy to keep such late hours, after you've been so ill, too!”
”I'ain now,” I protested ”And the vicar certainly is a very interesting companion”
There were a couple of letters, one fro, Lord Southbourne's private secretary, and both i wrote that Southbourne would be in town at the end of the week, _en route_ for Scotland, and wished to see me if I were fit for service
”A soft job this time, a trip to the States, so you'll be able to combine business with pleasure”
Under any other circumstances I could have done with a run home; but even while I read the letter I decided that Southbourne would have to entrust the ht be--to some one else
I opened the second letter, a typed note, signed by Fenning the news editor, enclosing one of the printed slips on which chance callers have to write their nalanced at that first, and found it filled in with an almost indecipherable scrawl I h as ”M Pavloff, Charing Cross Hotel,” and puzzled over a line in Gere from Johann” Noho on earth were Pavloff and Johann?
”Dear Wynn,” the note ran:
”One of your Russian friends called here to-night, and wanted your address, which of course was not given I saw hi man, who speaks German fairly well, but would not state his business--so I pro round all right!
”Yours sincerely, ”WALTER FENNING”