Nan ignored the first question. “Momsy never did speak very much of her people in Scotland,” she said in answer to the second. “She was very fond of her great uncle, Hugh Blake, the one whose estate she inherited, but I don’t think she ever saw him. She liked him, because her father did. She loved everything that he loved. Since this great uncle is the only one he ever talked much about, he is the only one I know of.
“Oh, she has mentioned others, vaguely, from time to time, but I don’t remember their names. However, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the name of this particular person.”
“Do you know at all why he should be camping on your doorstep?” Bess questioned further.
But Nan was not revealing any more now. Certain that her friend had recovered from her shock, she ignored the question, took one more look at her baggage, and called a steward. He came promptly, and before Nan and Bess left their stateroom again, all the baggage had been taken upstairs.
“There, I guess that fixes that,” Nan observed as they left the stateroom for the last time. “The steward will have charge of the baggage now until we land.”
“What I can’t understand,” Bess began as though there was only one question left in her mind, “is why Mr. Robert Hugh Blake is so determined to get into your baggage. What have you that’s so valuable?”
“Nothing, lassie, nothing,” Nan answered. “Only a lot of dresses that wouldn’t become him, even if he could get them on.”
Bess giggled at this. Nan took her by the arm. “Please,” she said earnestly and quickly, “don’t say anything to anyone about what has happened today. I’m sure it wouldn’t do any good.”
Bess remembered a similar promise, given at a time of other trouble in Florida, just as those readers who have read “Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach” will remember. “Of course I won’t,” she reassured her friend.
Nan looked her thanks. As the sound of the skirling of bagpipes reached them, they hastened their steps and joined Dr. Beulah Prescott and the rest of their Lakeview Hall friends on deck, and so were in the group when Dr. Prescott asked the question, “Are you ready to leave this boat and step your foot on foreign soil?”