He went out to the lounge and smoked with violence. Presently he saw the Evershams in the doorway talking to Robert Falconer, and he jumped up and hurried to join them. As he approached he heard the word Alexandria spoken fretfully by Mrs. Eversham.
"Good evening, good evening," said Billy hurriedly to the ladies, and being a young man of simple directness, undeterred by the glacial tinge of the ladies' response—they had not forgotten his defection of the evening before when they were entertaining him so nicely—he put the question which had been tormenting him all evening, "Where is Miss Beecher to-night?"
"Alexandria," said Mrs. Eversham again, and this time there was a hint of malicious satisfaction in her voice.
"Alexandria?" Billy was incredulous. "Why I—I understood she was to go up the Nile to-morrow morning."
"She was, but she has changed her mind. She had word from some friends of hers while we were out this afternoon and she flew right off to join them."
"You mean she isn't going up the Nile at all now?"
"I haven't an idea what she is going to do. She is not in our care any longer. And I don't suppose the boat company will do anything about her stateroom at this late date—certainly she can't expect us to go to any trouble about it."
"She left us half her packing to do," Clara Eversham contributed, addressing Falconer with plaintive mien, "and her hotel bill to pay. She is the most unexpected creature!"
Two young men silently and heartily concurred.
"What was her hurry?" Billy demanded.