Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/30



INNER will be ready in ten minutes, sir."

The waiter led the way to a small table on the right-hand side of the fireplace, in which burned a large fire surmounted by a log that crackled and spat a cheerful welcome.

"Empty!" remarked Beresford as he looked round the dining-room.

"It's the weather, sir," explained the waiter in an apologetic tone, as he gave a push to the log with his boot; then, after a swift glance round to satisfy himself that everything was as it should be, he withdrew.

Beresford shivered. The day's wetting had chilled him. What a day it had been. "The Two Dragons" was a godsend.

As he warmed himself before the fire, he mentally reviewed the events of the day, and came to the conclusion that there had been only one event, the girl on the gate.

For the past two hours her eyes had entirely eclipsed that absurd little phrase that had so obsessed his mind earlier in the day. It had been a strange day, he mused, a day of greyness: grey sky, 26