m. She told no one of her
intentions - not even her father, who was not in the hotel when she
left. She had scribbled a brief note to him to expect her back in a
day or two, and had posted this at Dover. The steamer was the
Marie Henriette, a large and luxurious boat, whose state-rooms on
deck vie with the glories of the Cunard and White Star liners. One
of these state-rooms, the best, was evidently occupied, for every
curtain of its windows was carefully drawn. Nella did not hope
that the Baroness was on board; it was quite possible for the
Baroness to have caught the eight o'clock steamer, and it was also
possible for the Baroness not to have gone to Ostend at all, but to
some other place in an entirely different direction. Nevertheless,
Nella had a faint hope that the lady who called herself Zerlinski
might be in that curtained stateroom, and throughout the smooth
moonlit voyage she never once relaxed her observation of its doors
and its windows.
The Maria Henriette arrived in Ostend Harbour punctually at 2
a.m. in the morning. There was the usual heterogeneous,
gesticulating crowd on the quay.
Nella kept her post near the door of the state-room, and at length
she was rewarded by seeing it open. Four middle-aged Englishmen
issued from it. From a glimpse of the interior Nella saw that they
had spent the voyage in card-playing.
It would not be too much to say that she was distinctly annoyed.
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