"Go to him, of course. That's all right."
"I'm afraid I must. But here's the port and here's the cigars. When you get tired of solitude, you'll find Jane in the drawing-room. Smoking's allowed there, you know."
Staines got tired of solitude very soon. In the drawing-room, the conversation between Jane and himself took a new note of earnestness and intimacy. Zero slept placidly through it all.
An hour later Mr Murray came back to the drawing-room with the news of Benham's death. He in return received, with goodwill and no surprise, the news that a marriage bad been arranged, and would shortly take place, between his daughter and Richard Staines.
CHAPTER IV
During the engagement, which was brief, Zero found that two people—of whom his master was one—had very little time to talk to him; but he was not absolutely forgotten.
"What are we to do with Zero while we're away?" asked Richard.
"Could we take him with us?" asked Miss Murray.
"I don't think so," said Richard. "There would be bother at these foreign hotels; and there's the quarantine to think about."