He forced himself to do a morning’s walk along the top of the sea-wall, with his wet trousers flapping against his legs like flags against their staves.
“Glorious wind!” he told Sargon when he went in to see him. “But I wish there was a gleam of sun.”
“Have you any news from Christina Alberta?” asked Sargon.
“There’s hardly time yet for a reply to my wire. But she’ll surely come,” said Bobby, and went downstairs to dry his legs at the fire.
He did not expect a summons to Hythe to meet the young lady very much before half-past twelve. Meanwhile he went out to the shed and assured himself that the motor bicycle and side-car were in perfect order for a hasty journey. Half-past twelve came, one, half-past one. He had some lunch. He became very restless, and rose and looked out of the window frequently to see if the messenger girl was coming with Christina Alberta’s telegram. About two a large, silent, luxurious-looking, hired Daimler car appeared outside and stopped at Mrs. Plumer’s gate. A hatless bobbed head appeared at the window and exchanged remarks with the driver, who descended and opened the door. The car emitted a handsome and determined young woman of advanced appearance, hatless and short-skirted, and a lean, dark, prosperous-looking man of thirty-eight or forty in blue serge and a grey felt hat. The man opened the gate for the girl, and she surveyed the house as she advanced.
Bobby realized that Christina Alberta had not kept her promise to be blue-eyed and fragile. She had betrayed him. Yet for all her treachery he had built up a sense of personal relationship with her that gripped him still. He watched her approach with an excitement he found difficult to control. He wondered who the devil the dark man was. A cousin perhaps. She discovered Bobby watching her from the window and their eyes met.
§ 2
Bobby, with an instinct that is given to young people for such occasions, perceived that he interested Christina Alberta extremely. He parleyed with her and Devizes in Mrs. Plumer’s little downstairs room. He spoke chiefly to her. Devizes he treated as a secondary figure, a voice at her elbow. “He’s got a nasty cold on his chest,” he said. “He’s been asking for Miss Preemby——”
“Christina Alberta,” said Christina Alberta.
“Christina Alberta a lot. But it was only last night I could get the address out of him. He’d forgotten it before. We’ve been here over a day. He caught the cold coming here.”