Now and again I threw a look over my shoulder. Always Berry and Daphne were close behind. Fervently I wished that they were in front. I began to walk more slowly.... Suddenly I realized that I was streaming with sweat. As I felt for my handkerchief-- "Look at Nobby," said Jill. "Whatever's he doing?" I glanced at my cousin to follow the direction of her eyes. _Nobby was sitting up, begging, before a large elderly gentleman who was seated, immaculately dressed, some six paces away. He was affecting not to see the terrier, but there was a queer frozen look about his broad smile that set me staring. Even as I gazed he lowered his eyes and lifting a hand from his knee, began to regard the tips of his fingers, as though they were ungloved...._ For a second I stood spellbound. Then I took off my hat. CHAPTER IX HOW ADELE FESTE ARRIVED, AND MR. DUNKLESBAUM SUPPED WITH THE DEVIL. "There she is!" cried Jill. "Where?" said I, screwing up my eyes and peering eagerly at the crowded taffrails. "There, Boy, there. Look, she's seen us. She's waving." Hardly I followed the direction of my cousin's pink index finger, which was stretched quivering towards the promenade deck. "Is that her in blue?" But a smiling Jill was already nodding and waving unmistakably to the tall slim figure, advances which the latter was as surely returning with a cheerly wave of her slight blue arm. Somewhat sheepishly I took off my hat. Adele Feste had arrived. More than fifteen months had elapsed since we had reluctantly seen her into the boat-train at Euston and wished her a safe journey to her American home. At the time, with an uneasiness bred of experience, I had wondered whether our friendship was to survive the battery of time and distance, or whether it was destined to slip into a decline and so, presently, out of our lives, fainting and painless. Touch, however, had been maintained by a fitful correspondence, and constant references to Miss Feste's promised visit to White Ladies--a consummation which we one and all desired--were made for what they were worth. Finally my sister sat down and issued a desperate summons. "My dear, don't keep us waiting any longer. Arrive in August and stay for six months. If you don't, we shall begin to believe what we already suspect--that we live too far away." The thrust went home. Within a month the invitation had been accepted, with the direct result that here were Jill and I, at six o'clock of a pleasant August evening, standing upon a quay at Southampton, while the Rolls waited patiently, with Fitch at her wheel, a stone's throw away, ready to rush our guest and ourselves over the odd fifteen miles that lay between the port and White Ladies.