"Yes; and that's what I'm coming to. The fact is, my whole business in life for the last year has been to find her out."
"You haven't dawdled so much, then, as people suppose?"
"No; that's all very well to throw people off a fellow's scent; but you know me well enough, Dacres; and we didn't dawdle much in South America, did we?"
"That's true, my boy; but as to this lady, what is it that makes it so hard for you to find her? In the first place, is she an American?"
"Oh no."
"Why not?"
"Oh, accent, manner, tone, idiom, and a hundred other things. Why, of course, you know as well as I that an American lady is as different from an English as a French or a German lady is. They may be all equally ladies, but each nation has its own peculiarities."
"Is she Canadian?"
"Possibly. It is not always easy to tell a Canadian lady from an English. They imitate us out there a good deal. I could tell in the majority of cases, but there are many who can not be distinguished from us very easily. And Ethel may be one."
"Why mayn't she be English?"