"To save you annoyance, I think it is a pardonable deception. What is his name?"
"Richard. But I don't know much about him."
"Then we will consider that that is settled," he said cheerfully, and, without giving her time to argue the matter, summoned a fly, which presently deposited them bag and baggage at the hotel door. To make assurance doubly sure, he hastened to sign their names in the visitors' book:
"Mrs. Robert Allingford, Christchurch, England.
"Mr. Richard Allingford, U.S.A."
"Can you give my sister and me good rooms for to-night?" he asked the landlady.
"Yes, sir, two nice rooms just opposite each other."
He said that that would do very well, and they were soon installed.
Once in her apartment, Mrs. Allingford indulged in a good cry, while Scarsdale strolled out before dinner to have a smoke and think it over. He did not see much further use in telegraphing just at that moment. Later it would, perhaps, be well to send a message to Basingstoke, saying that they were detained at Winchester and would come on next morning; for he had quickly learned that Mrs. Scarsdale and Mr. Allingford would be able to leave the train at Salisbury, and justly surmised that they had done so.
Presently, having finished his cigar, he returned to the hotel to find Mrs. Allingford ready for dinner, and much refreshed by her tears and subsequent ablutions. They neither of them ate much, and after the fish they gave up any attempt to make conversation as worse than useless, and finished the repast in silence.