After issuing from the post-office, they went together to several shops, strolled for a few minutes up and down the sea front, and then returned home.
He had not expected to find them at a hotel, for obvious reasons. He was not therefore surprised when they entered one of the bigger houses facing the sea. They wanted privacy, and their only chance of getting that was in lodgings.
He snatched a hasty lunch, and kept observation on the house till about six o’clock, in the hope that her ladyship would come out again with a companion. But he was disappointed in this expectation.
He made up his mind to force matters a little. He went up boldly to the door and knocked.
“Is Mrs Marsh at home?” he asked the servant who answered the summons.
The girl answered in the affirmative. “Who shall I say, please?” she added.
“Wait a moment. Is she alone?”
It was a random shot, but it had the effect he intended.
“Quite alone. Mr Williams is very bad again to-day. He’s in bed.”
Mr Williams! Just the sort of ordinary name a man would assume under the circumstances.