We looked up in confusion. If we could only get him out of the way before the captain entered! He waited while we pondered how to answer.
“What ladies do you wish to see?” I asked.
“Well, this is good! Little madam, may I take this seat beside you?”
He dropped into the chair between us and we caught for an instant his old merry laugh, “nipped in the bud,” it is true, for we gave him a warning glance. Mrs. Harris was considerate and tactful, and we not only had our corner to ourselves, but attention and observation diverted from us as much as possible. We were much amused at Captain Locke’s “make-up,” and he was evidently very proud of it.
“It must be very clever for your eyes not to have seen through it,” he said. “I have been looking up at your window and watching you every day. I saw, too, that you made merry at my expense. It was a great temptation to speak to you many times, but I didn’t want to make advances nor to ask permission to call until I knew something about how the land lay over here.”
“You don’t know how anxious we have been about you, or how glad and thankful we are to see you,” we assured him. “We have been very uneasy at not hearing from you. Where is Mr. Holliway?”
“God knows!” he answered gravely. “He was afraid to follow my fortunes, I think. He left me at Frederick. He ought to be here by now, but if he is he is keeping very close.”
“He is not here,” we answered. “We have been to see his mother and sister, and they know nothing of him.”
“Then something is wrong. He had an idea that we might be tracked to Frederick very easily from Berlin, and from Frederick to this place if we came by the direct route; so he branched off into West Virginia, intending to reach Baltimore by a more round-about route than mine. Poor Holliway! he was not well, and he was nervous and unstrung over this trip from the first. He felt that I was reckless and that I was throwing away my own chance and his.”
Some one in the room came near us and we returned to generalities. Very soon after Captain Locke made his adieux, promising to call again when we could arrange it.