"Could a man do otherwise? Pleasant trip; goodbye."
And the iron horse is off, leaving the man about town who plays his cards with a winning hand, alone on the platform.
"I shall hasten back to the hotel, they may not yet have left;" meaning by 'they,' Lady Esmondet and Vaura. "It will look quite natural to see them, and say the others are safely away." Hurrying along, he reached the hotel to hear they had left "ten minutes previously; just leaving twenty minutes till she sails, sir," said the porter.
Hailing a passing cab, Everly offered double fare if in time. Fortune favoured him in allowing him to be in time to assist another gentleman (whom he thought to be on tantalizing intimate terms) in looking after the comfort of the travellers.
"Delighted I'm in time to be of any service, Miss Vernon," he said, heartily; "afraid you are going to have rain.
"I am protected, Sir Tilton," she said, smilingly, and holding up her arm in water-proof ulster.
"Many women, when they don the armour of protection, so ill become it, that we are fain to see them unprotected; but you are born to wear anything, and look so well we don't want any new fashion."
"Always allowing, Sir Tilton, for the natural changeableness of man, which would assert itself in spite of a momentary wish."
"You could hold us at will," he said, picking up a rose that had fallen from her bouquet; "may I?" and it is carefully put on his coat.
"Trust me, Sir Tilton," she said, gaily; "I have made your sex (loving it, as I do) a study. Charles Reade was right; you are 'born to hunt something;' it certainly is not the old, which is past, but the new; yes, say what you will, an innate love of variety—even to our gown," she added, merrily, "is an inherent part of your nature."