“On the four o’clock boat. Looked pretty hard, too,” was the clerk’s answer.
“Why didn’t he go to his mother’s?” was Paul’s next question, as he turned the leaves of the register till he found Jack’s name.
“I asked him that, and he said he wasn’t wanted, and consigned his mother to Hades,” the clerk replied, with a meaning look at Paul.
“But where did he go? Where is he now?” Paul continued.
The clerk could not tell him. “He is to take his meals here, but where he is to sleep I don’t know.”
This was all the information Paul could get, and he left the hotel half glad, half sorry that Jack had come, and determining to find him the next morning, and if his mother were willing, take him to the Ralston House until after the wedding. The house was full of guests, but Mrs. Ralston expressed her readiness to receive Jack if Paul would share his sleeping room with him.
“I’ll do it,” Paul said. “It is his getting drunk Clarice dreads so much, and I think I can keep him sober. I’ll try it, any way. He is Clarice’s brother and is soon to be mine.”
Immediately after breakfast the next morning he started for the hotel to find Jack. He did not see him at first, and inquired for him at the office.
“Haven’t seen him,” was the answer of the clerk, and Paul went out again upon the piazza to look for him.
Spying him at last, he hastened to him, and with a cheery “Good morning, Jack. I’ve hunted everywhere for you. How are you, old fellow,” held out his hand.