The ugly fellow whom I had noticed the evening before
was hanging about, but presently a waiter came and spoke to him,
and he got up with a grumble and went into the house. Ten
minutes afterward my neighbor of the salle a manger came
out. She looked very discontented. She rang a handbell that
stood on the table, and a waiter ran up.
"`Where's the head waiter?' she asked sharply.
"`Pardon, ma'mselle, but he is waiting on some ladies
upstairs.'
"`What a nuisance!' said she. `But you'll do. I want to give
him an order. Stay; come indoors and I'll write it down.'
"She disappeared, and I sat on, wondering how I was to get a
sight of Mary. At last, in weariness, I went indoors to the
smoking room. It looked out to the back and was a dreary little
room; but I lit my cigar and began on a three days' old copy of
the Times. Thus I spent a tedious hour. Then my friend the
head waiter appeared, looking more roguish than ever. I dived
into my pocket, he produced a note, I seized it.
"`Why have you been so long?' (Charmingly unreasonable! what
could I have done?) `Directly you get this, come to the wood
behind the hotel. Take the path to the right and go straight
till you find me. I have thrown the SPY [poor old Dibbs!] off
the scent.--M.'
"I caught up my hat and rushed into the hall. I cannoned into a
young man who had just got out of a carriage and was standing in
the veranda.
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