This piece of strategy left me staring and made me, I must confess,
quite furious. My only consolation was that Archie, when I told him,
looked as blank as myself, and that the trick touched him more nearly,
for I was not now in love with Louisa. We agreed that we required an
explanation and we pretended to expect one the next day in the shape of
a letter satisfactory even to the point of being apologetic. When I say
"we" pretended I mean that I did, for my suspicion that he knew what had
been on foot--through an arrangement with Linda--lasted only a moment.
If his resentment was less than my own his surprise was equally great. I
had been willing to bolt, but I felt slighted by the ease with which
Mrs. Pallant had shown she could part with us. Archie professed no sense
of a grievance, because in the first place he was shy about it and
because in the second it was evidently not definite to him that he had
been encouraged--equipped as he was, I think, with no very particular
idea of what constituted encouragement. He was fresh from the wonderful
country in which there may between the ingenuous young be so little
question of "intentions." He was but dimly conscious of his own and
could by no means have told me whether he had been challenged or been
jilted. I didn't want to exasperate him, but when at the end of three
days more we were still without news of our late companions I observed
that it was very simple:--they must have been just hiding from us; they
thought us dangerous; they wished to avoid entanglements. They had found
us too attentive and wished not to raise false hopes. He appeared to
accept this explanation and even had the air--so at least I inferred
from his asking me no questions--of judging the matter might be delicate
for myself. The poor youth was altogether much mystified, and I smiled
at the image in his mind of Mrs. Pallant fleeing from his uncle's
importunities. We decided to leave Homburg, but if we didn't pursue our
fugitives it wasn't simply that we were ignorant of where they were. I
could have found that out with a little trouble, but I was deterred by