"Yes, and I much regret it, for Mr. Kirk has been our very good friend throughout. It was he who urged my father to allow Mr. Langton to pay court to me," she added. "It was he who made the suggestion that we might be allowed to marry. Such being the case, how can I think ill of the eccentric old fellow?" "Of course not," I said, "but is your trust really well founded, do you think? Are you quite certain that he is your friend, or only your pretended ally?" "I am quite certain," she declared, "I have had proof abundant of it." "Your father did not, I believe, tell you of his projected visit to Germany before leaving?" "No," was her reply. "He went up to Edinburgh, but after having left me was suddenly compelled to alter his plans. He crossed to the Hook of Holland, travelling from York to Harwich without returning to London." "This he has told you?" "Yes, in a letter he wrote from Cologne. I wanted to join him, but he would not allow me, and ordered me to come down here. He is very busy concerning one of his recent discoveries." "Ah!" I sighed. "He would not allow you to go to him, eh?" "No; he made excuse that the weather was better just now in Broadstairs than in Southern Germany, and said that his future movements were very uncertain, and that he could not be hampered by a woman." In that reply I recognised an evasiveness which was natural. The Professor himself was dead, and this mysterious person posing as him was, of course, disinclined to meet Ethelwynn face to face. Yet that even surely did not affect the girl's amazing attitude? She herself had seen her father dead, yet was now actually assisting the impostor to keep up the fiction that he was still alive! CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. I DRAW THE IMPOSTOR. Having invented a story of a secret business friendship with the Professor, I remained with his pretty daughter for perhaps a quarter of an hour longer. From her I further learned that Leonard Langton was now back in London, and that Kirk had written her implicit instructions to remain at Broadstairs for the present. Then I bade her farewell, and walked back along the cliffs, past the Grand Hotel, to the quaint parade of the old-fashioned little watering-place, turning up to the chemist's shop, which is, at the same time, the post-office. Thence I dispatched a telegram addressed to Professor Greer at the address in Strassburg which his daughter had given me, appending Kirk's name, and asking for a reply to be sent to the Albion Hotel at Broadstairs, where I intended staying. Afterwards I strolled to the hotel, ate my luncheon, and idled along the deserted jetty and promenade throughout the bleak, bright afternoon in eager expectation of a response from the impostor. My thought was ever on my dear lost Mabel. Fettered by ignorance and mystery, I knew not in which direction to search, nor could I discern any motive by which we should be thus parted.