"Have you tried Southampton, then?"
"No; but I shall next week if nothing more turns up here. You can nearly always pick up a released cabin at the last moment there."
"Yes. Quite so." The Englishman dismissed the matter. He looked absently down at the ships in the sound and then, recollecting himself, turned back to his young companion.
"Oh, I say, Mr. Preston," he recalled. "I quite forgot for a moment, but where are your American friends, Mrs. Varris and the really delightful Miss—Varris, was it not? They have not sailed for America already, I hope?"
Preston leaned over and applied himself suddenly to his cold chop, which he had neglected entirely after the Englishman had come. But he did not succeed in hiding the quick coloring of his face.
"They have not sailed yet, I believe," he said.
"Excellent! Then we shall see them soon!"
"I don't believe so."
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