"Yes."

"And feel the same way toward her yet?"

"Yes."

"Hit hard?"

"Yes; and that's what I'm coming to. The fact is, my whole business in
life for the last year has been to find her out."

"You haven't dawdled so much, then, as people suppose?"

"No; that's all very well to throw people off a fellow's scent; but
you know me well enough, Dacres; and we didn't dawdle much in South
America, did we?"

"That's true, my boy; but as to this lady, what is it that makes it so
hard for you to find her? In the first place, is she an American?"

"Oh no."

"Why not?"

"Oh, accent, manner, tone, idiom, and a hundred other things. Why, of
course, you know as well as I that an American lady is as different
from an English as a French or a German lady is. They may be all
equally ladies, but each nation has its own peculiarities."