Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/259

 six on the morrow he would be "dropping down the river on a nine-knot tide."

That morning he had been down to the docks and arranged everything. He had signed-on aboard the Allanmore as assistant-purser outward bound for Sydney. It was all through Tallis. What a splendid fellow he was. Dr. Seaman seemed to expect him and had arranged everything. He looked at his watch; it was half-past four. Rising, he picked up his hat and went out into the sunshine. Just why he did it he could not have said. He strolled along Regent Street, smoking a cigarette and enjoying the warmth. Opposite Gérard's he encountered Edward Seymour, gazing about him with the air of a dog that is to be called for. Beresford recognised the symptoms. Edward Seymour was shopping with Mrs. Edward, and had been left outside.

Seymour nodded in his usual off-hand manner. Beresford decided that he looked more than ever like a sandy ferret.

"Edward, you ought to meet Mr. Deacon Quelch," he said. It was always amusing to spring irrelevant remarks upon Edward Seymour, who would take a parliamentary candidate's promises seriously.

"Who's he?" demanded Seymour, "and why ought I to meet him?"

"His happiness, like yours, Edward, is linked up with the other world."

Edward Seymour screwed up his face, with him