Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/160

 the previous morning's breakfast, except a lightly boiled sole that the Rain-Girl had caused to be sent to his room.

By Jove, that was why he had fainted! Suddenly he remembered that he had gone the whole day without food. With a nod he dismissed the man and, a moment later, lifted the covers from the two dishes and gazed down at them. In one were boiled fillets of sole and in the other an omelette.

"It's the Rain-Girl for a dollar," he cried joyfully and, drawing up a chair, he proceeded to eat with the appetite of a man who has eaten practically nothing for twenty-four hours.

The food was good, the tea was stimulating, and once more life had become a thing of crimson and of gold. It was strange, he argued, how a good meal changed one's mental outlook, and now—what? He paused as he lighted a cigarette. What was he to say when he met her? With a shrug of his shoulders he walked towards the lift.

"Are you better?"

Beresford turned swiftly on his heel. It was the Rain-Girl in a white linen frock and a panama hat. He was just crossing the hall wondering where he should begin his search, when she had appeared from apparently nowhere.

"Thanks to you; I am quite well again." Then with inspiration he added, "I'm as right as rain." She smiled. "Did" he hesitated for a moment, "did you order my breakfast?"

She nodded.