Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/126

Rh the Plymouth division of the channel fleets. And merchant steamers from the West Indies, the Americas, Australia, the Cape, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean, constantly call and clear through the waters before the Hoe.

The Englishman entered the big, high-ceilinged breakfast-room of the hotel which overlooks this busy water-front, with the sense of complete satisfaction which can be attained only by a Briton who has finished his hereditary task.

His ancestral duty was done. He had visited in turn all of the twenty odd cathedrals in England which were standing when his acquisitive ancestor made his first penitential tour. He had the prosperous appearance of one who has entered upon his inheritance.

It was so late in the morning that the room was deserted, save for three or four tardy ones who sat lonely over their mid-morning meal at separate windows.

The Englishman glanced over these critically and was selecting a solitary table for 106