III


The next thing that happened was that she went off with Jevons.

At least, to all appearances she went off with him. They were in Belgium,
at Bruges and Antwerp and Ghent and Bruges again together. I found them
at Bruges after having tracked them through all the other places.

It was Captain Thesiger who started me. Reggie (whose family seemed to
employ him chiefly to find out what Viola was up to) had called at my
rooms after Easter to ask me if I could give him his sister's address.
He said they hadn't got it at Hampstead, where he had been to see her,
and they didn't know where she was staying. They thought it was in the
country somewhere, and that she wouldn't be very long away, as she told
them not to forward any letters. He thought I might possibly have her
address.

I told him that I hadn't, and that I didn't know how to get it, either.

He said, "It's a rotten habit she's got of sloping off like this without
telling you." It wouldn't matter, only his regiment was ordered off to
India. He was sailing next week. She was to have come down to Canterbury
for Easter and she hadn't. If he only knew the people she was stopping
with--if he'd any idea of the town or the village or the county, he'd try
and find her. But she might be in the Hebrides for all he knew.

I said I was sorry I couldn't help. All I knew was she had gone into the