“Then—then I’ll wish you good evening again,” he said, and wandered forlornly away. Nancy sped off again. Mr. Clark, swinging round, once more followed the trail, but with greater caution. p. 40The girl, turning and twisting among the huddled streets of the old seaport town, gave her exhausted pursuer an engrossed half-hour. p. 40 Then, again, she halted—exactly opposite her own dwelling. And Mr. Clark, tottering to a full-stop, fancied he heard a low, gleeful laugh between the ensuing opening and shutting of the Posketts’ front door. It was a stiff and weary-eyed Mr. Clark who called to see Mr. Horace Dobb at his shop next morning. Mr. Dobb, when furnished with the narrative of the previous night’s events, merely smiled unsympathetically. “Never mind!” he said. “It’ll all come right in the end. You just keep on, to show you’re in earnest. ’Ave you arranged with Captain Dutt to leave the ‘Jane Gladys’ to-day? Good! And got all the money owing to you? Better! Now you must go and sit and rest yourself in the ‘Green Dragon,’ opposite Wicklett & Sharp’s in the ’Igh Street. You’ll be able to see when she comes out for dinner then, and keep an eye on ’er again.” Faithfully did Mr. Clark obey these instructions. Not only did he shadow Miss Poskett home in her dinner-hour, but he hung about the road till she emerged again, and then watched her back to her place of employment. But in the interval he was far from happy, and his only solace was to be found in the discovery that more than one householder spoke respectfully to him under the impression that he was so thrilling a thing as a detective in the local police force. That same evening found him in grim ambush outside Messrs. Wicklett & Sharp’s place of business, and p. 41there he lurked till the blinds of the shop were lowered, and at last Miss Poskett came tripping out. After gazing round far more carefully than the sentinel realized, Nancy hurried away. p. 41 Sedulously did Mr. Clark follow her, rejoicing that he had had the foresight to don an easier pair of shoes this evening. But to-night the course was short. A couple of hundred yards were covered, and then the girl flitted into a big, official-looking edifice. “The Registry Office!” ejaculated Mr. Clark. “No, it ain’t; it’s
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