"That you shall hear. Do you know my son, Mr. Scarsdale?"
"Only slightly."
"You may be aware that he was married yesterday." Jack nodded, and she continued: "To a Miss Vernon, an American. You know her, I believe?"
"Quite well," replied her host. "She is a most charming woman."
"Now this Mr. Allingford telegraphs me," resumed his visitor, "from my aunt Lady Melton's country seat, Melton Court, that he is staying there with my son's wife, who was Miss Vernon."
"Staying there with Allingford! At Melton Court!" gasped Jack, to whom this seemed the most improbable combination of circumstances. "But where is her husband?"
"I regret to say," replied her ladyship, "that, as a result of the two couples meeting each other at Basingstoke, they in some way became separated and carried off in different trains; so that my daughter-in-law and Mr. Allingford are now at my aunt's country place, near Salisbury, while my son and Mrs. Allingford have gone off together somewhere on the South Coast, and no trace can be found of them."
"But how did it happen?"
"The whole affair seems to have been the result of some deplorable blunder or accident; but in any event it is most distressing, and I came up at once to London, thinking you might be able to help me. But I see from your surprise that you have heard nothing from either party."
"Not a word. But I am quite at your service."