Part 12 (1/2)
”You see down at his table
”It's an interesting city I'norant of your etiquette; but would I be permitted to send for so ”For one thing, I oodto begin a flirtation with afor the tea She was pretty, and had a certain air of refinement, but it was a dainty prettiness that somehow harmonized with the exotic luxury of the roo from Alice Featherstone's rather stately beauty, which found an appropriate background in the dignified austerity of the Garth
”Are you enjoying your stay here?” she resuh The climate's not very cheerful, and the people seeers”
”The Scots are proverbially cautious,” she answered carelessly, but Foster thought he saw a gleam of interest in her eyes ”I suppose so you with questions?”
”Yes; as I' character, it annoys me Besides, I really think it's quite unjustified Do I look dangerous?”
”No,” she said with a twinkle, ”if you did, I shouldn't have ventured to speak to you On the contrary, you have a candid air that ought to banish distrust Of course, I don't know if it's deceptive”
”You have to know people for soine I' If I had, for exa watched As it happens, I et as much innocent pleasure as possible out of a holiday, and feel vexed when people won't letlook, and then said carelessly, ”One can sy to be watched But after all, Edinburgh's rather dull just now, and the cold winds are trying to strangers”
”Is this a hint that I ought to go away?”
”Do you take hints?” she asked with a sine you're rather an obstinate man I suppose you took the packet to Newcastle?”
”I did,” Foster adetic voice ”You see, I pro”
”And, of course, you kept your word! Well, that was very nice of you, but I wouldn't make any rash promises while you stay in this country
Soo”
She left hihtfulto hione to Newcastle and had since been watched He gathered that she thought the things had soiven hi the tea-room, he walked for a short distance and then stopped on the pavement in Princes Street and looked about It was dark, but a biting wind had cleared the air At one end of the ihborhood of the Caledonian station, and when one looked the other way a long row of lights ran on, and then curving round and rising sharply, ended in a cluster of twinkling points high against the sky The dark, blurred athered round was the Castle rock, and below it the tall spire of the Scott ainst the shadowy hollohere the gardens sloped away
Now he had resolved to leave the city, Foster felt its charo, but walked on,on the oin with, Carely for Alice Featherstone's sake he had eirl in the tea-rooe to help Alice, but the others' interference was, so to speak, superfluous Aone woh
After a few minutes he stopped and looked into a shopas alah Foster did not think he had seen him yet He would know very soon and for a moment or two he felt his heart beat, but when he looked round Daly had passed Foster followed and saw hih Foster re there He decided to leave Edinburgh as soon as he could next ht a map of southern Scotland on his way back to the hotel
After dinner, he sat down in the s-room near a man to whom he had once or twice spoken The latter was a red-faced, keen-eyed old fellow, and looked like a small country laird
”I've coh in the capital,” he said ”After all, you can't judge a country by its towns
What would you advise?”
”It depends upon what ye want to see?” the et enough of industrial activity in Ontario, and would sooner hear the grouse and the black-cock than shi+pyard hao on foot”
His coood walker?”
”I have walked three hundred s on a hand-sledge”
”Then I think I can tell ye how to see rugged Scotland, for the country has two different sides Ye can take your choice, but ye cannot see both at once I could send ye by main roads, where the tourists'