Man of the world, he was amused by her attitude. And he admired her grit. Moreover, he wished her well. That, however, was not easy to convey.
He tried the dulcet and disarming. “You see, Miss Durrance, there’s a bunch of jewel thieves I’m lookin’ for. Scotland Yard has rounded up several. I expect we’ll soon fix the hull circus.”
Miss Durrance, with glacial eye, continued to gaze upon the English scene. “The frozen mit” with a vengeance. Jewel thieves, Scotland Yard, even the brightest of Tillotson’s Agency, haloed with romance for a normal girl, were cutting no ice for the moment. Her pride had been wounded and Detective Addelsee had now to foot the bill.
“You can quit.” A fierce eye pinned him like an arrow. “Cops don’t interest me nothing.”
Silence again. The position was a little humiliating for a man of the world. But this charming spitfire intrigued him. Such a you-be-damnedness quite took the fancy of William R. And the simple independence touched his sense of chivalry.
“If I can help you any I’ll be glad,” he said, humble as pie, yet adroitly raising a hand to hide the laugh in his eyes.
Said Miss Spitfire: “You can beat it. That’ll help me considerable.”
The entrance at this moment of a very small and very polite boy in a strangely bright and extremely tight suit of livery was most opportune. Miss Durrance, who had a fixed determination to see, mark and learn as much as she could in the shortest time possible, was taken at once by this new kind of “bell-hop.”
“Corfee, miss?”
The fair traveller ordered coffee.