Their demeanor was not kindly toward the errant Clifford. A garbled version of the story of the robbery had, indeed, reached them already, and they had both made up their minds that Nell was the thief. Willie Jordan, of course, was the more inclined to this view from his resentment at having been “cut out” by Clifford, who, on his side, was reticent and entirely silent on the subject of the sudden infatuation which had led him to propose marriage to the girl.
Very soon the subject of the Blue Lion and its inhabitants was tacitly tabooed among the friends, and it was not until ten days later that any of them found their way to the little inn by the shore.
When they did so, however, they were disappointed in the object of their visit. Nell was never to be seen, and not one of the three young men ever dared to ask for her, as George Claris, looking upon them apparently as fellow-conspirators against the fair fame of his house, was curt to the verge of rudeness to them all.
Now this invisibility on the part of Nell, far from cooling Clifford’s quickly sprung-up passion, served only to inflame it further. But it was in vain he wrote—in vain he hung about the neighborhood. Although on two or three occasions he caught sight of her, she always disappeared before he could come near.
The last day of the stay of the three friends arrived, and they made one despairing attempt to bid her good-by. Clifford had preserved his reticence concerning the girl, but the other two more than suspected him. Willie had softened in his views of the mysterious affair, and it was now only Conybeare who persisted in a harsh judgment of the innkeeper’s niece.
She was just the sort of girl, he said, to attract young fools and make them lose their wits and their money. He, however, was as anxious for a farewell peep at the mysterious beauty as his companions.
This time they were fortunate. When they had gone past the inn, they caught sight of the pretty figure whom they all had in their thoughts, and they all pretended to view it with indifference. Willie was the first to break down in this assumption.
“There she is!” he said, in quite a tremulous voice. “It’s no use pretending we don’t see her. Do you think she’ll run away if we get over the fence?”
Clifford had already made the experiment.
To the great relief of the whole party, Nell turned slowly and waited for their approach without a smile, with, indeed, a sort of quiet defiance.