I replied that that was probably the reason why they'd asked me to join
them when I'd seen Ghent.

Withers advised me to go on seeing Ghent if I wanted to be popular.
They--Jevons and Miss Thesiger--didn't look at all as if they wanted to
be seen, much less joined.

He had the air of knowing a good deal more than he cared to tell me; but
then he always had that air; you may say he lived on it.

I asked him presently (in a suitable context) whether he was going back
soon; and to my relief I learned that he had only just come out--for his
paper--and was going on into Germany through Brussels. He wouldn't be
back in England for another three weeks or more.

He wouldn't be back, I reflected, to tell what he knew or what he didn't
know, till Reggie Thesiger had sailed.

I got rid of the little beast on the first likely pretext, having dealt
with him so urbanely that he couldn't possibly think he had told me
anything I saw reason to believe and therefore to resent.

Then I went back to Bruges.

This time my quest was fairly easy. I didn't know what hotel Jevons
was staying in; but I did know the sort of hotel that Withers stayed
in when he was travelling for his paper. My errand was narrowed down to
three or four (good, but not too good), and the first I struck in the
Market-Place was Withers's hotel. It was one of those that three days ago