Miss Boom returned the salutation, and, marking the place in her book with her forefinger, looked over the hedge on the other side of the road to the sea beyond.
“Your father has left his pouch behind, and being as I was coming this way, asked me to call for it,” faltered the young man.
Miss Boom turned her head, and, regarding him steadily, noted the rising colour and the shuffling feet.
“Did he say where he had left it?” she inquired.
“No,” said the other.
“Well, my time’s too valuable to waste looking for pouches,” said Kate, bending down to her book again, “but if you like to go in and look for it, you may!”
She moved aside to let him pass, and sat listening with a slight smile as she heard him moving about the room.
“I can’t find it,” he said, after a pretended search.
“Better try the kitchen now then,” said Miss Boom, without looking up, “and then the scullery. It might be in the woodshed or even down the garden. You haven’t half looked.”
She heard the kitchen door close behind him, and then, taking her book with her, went upstairs to her room. The conscientious Tarrell, having duly searched all the above-mentioned places, returned to the parlour and waited. He waited a quarter of an hour, and then going out by the front door, stood irresolute.