Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/277

Rh "Oh, you will soon get over that."

"Good-morning."

"Good-morning, Sir Richard."

With that, I bade him farewell, and went out of the office, half stunned by my good fortune. I thought of the poor girl whose end had been so tragic, and of the old man as I had last seen him, shaking his fist at me out of the window. And to think that that lovely old home was mine, and that I was a baronet, the representative of a race as old as any in the country side! It seemed too wonderful to be true!

Hearty were the congratulations showered upon me at Potts Point, you may be sure, when I told my tale, and my health was drunk at lunch with much acclaim. But our minds were too much taken up with the arrangements for our departure that afternoon to allow us to think very much of anything else. By two o'clock we were ready to leave the house, by half-past we were on board the yacht, at three-fifteen the anchor was up, and we were ploughing our way down the harbour.

Our search for Phyllis had reached another stage.