“She is,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Aren’t you, Adeline Maud?”
“Now that I know you’re safe——” said Miss Blow.
“In any case,” said Dr. O’Grady, “your pursuit would be quite useless. The Emperor started at ten o’clock last night in his motor-car. It must be after twelve now, so he has fourteen hours’ start of you. By the time you get back to Clonmore and send off telegrams——”
“I shall insist,” said Mr. Dick; “I shall never consent——”
“You go out at once to your wife,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Didn’t you hear Lord Manton say that she is outside waiting for you? You’ve been swaggering about the way you loved her ever since I first met you walking about with nothing on you but your shirt. I don’t believe you care a pin about her. If you did, you’d be with her now, relieving her anxiety, instead of standing about here talking like a born fool. As I was saying, Goddard, by the time you’ve sent off telegrams——”
“I don’t want to send off any more telegrams,” said Mr. Goddard; “I had enough of that yesterday.”
“In any case,” said Dr. O’Grady, “I don’t think you’d catch him, when he’d have fifteen or sixteen hours’ start of your telegrams. It was a good car, and I don’t believe you so much as know the number of it.”
“The only thing that troubles me,” said Mr. Goddard, “is the Inspector-General. He’ll be in Clonmore by this time.”
“Is he mixed up in it?”
“Yes,” said Lord Manton. “He and the Lord Lieutenant, and the Chief Secretary, and the Prime Minister; though I’m not quite sure about the Prime Minister. It’s a State affair. The whole Empire is on the tip-toe of excited expectation to find out what has happened.”