“Why not?” The question came instantly, though it came in a quiet, friendly tone.
“My recollection is that I gave some other name. I am trying to remember what. I was rather doubtful about the character of the place, and didn’t want to run the risk of it being known that I had been there. I considered the name didn’t matter; I thought it was merely a form.” I was glancing feverishly through the pages as I talked, trying to pick out some name too common to be easily identified. “Ah, yes, I remember now—Carter.”
I placed my finger on an entry nine months old. A Mr. Robert Carter had been introduced on that date by a Captain Smethwick.
Much to my relief Tarleton accepted the explanation readily.
“I dare say a good many of the names in that book are equally fictitious,” he said with good humour. “Look and see what name the Crown Prince took last night.”
It was easily found. A Count Donau had been introduced by the Chancellor of the Slavonian Embassy.
“Any other visitors?” the consultant asked lightly.
I read aloud one or two masculine names, but he pulled me up.
“Any ladies?”
There were two lady visitors. I read out both their names without misgiving. One was a Lady Greatorex, the other a Mrs. Antrobus, both of them assumed names for aught I knew.