He'd known me--never mind
how long--so it was all right. I don't know what I'd have done
without Mr. Tarbuck."

She paused on him.

"That man, whom you don't think fit for me to have around,
is--well--he's the finest man I've ever known or want to know. He
does the dearest things."

She paused again, remembering them. And Thesiger, though her
admiration of Tarbuck was obscurely hateful to him, owned that, fine
as she was, she was at her finest as she praised him.

"Why," she went on, "just because Binky couldn't afford a good room
he gave him his. He said the view of the sea would set him up better
than anything, and the garage was all the view _he_ wanted, because
he's just crazy on motors. And he's been like that all through.
Never thought of himself once."

"Oh, didn't he?" said Thesiger.

"Not once. Do you know, Mr. Tarbuck is a very big man. He runs one
of the biggest businesses in the States; and at twenty-four hours'
notice he left his big business to take care of itself, and came
right away on this trip to take care of me."

"Is he taking care of you now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well--if he can leave you--here----?"

"Why, he's here somewhere, looking for Mr. Bingham-Booker. He's
routing about in those queer saloons and places."

"And you?"

"I'm keeping my eye on the Casino. It's my fault he got away. You
can't always tell when it's best to give him his head and when it
isn't. I ought to have let him have that whiskey and soda. Do you
see either of them?"

He looked round. "I think," he said, "I see Mr. Tarbuck."

She followed his gaze. Not five yards from them, planted on the
pavement as if he grew there, was Mr. Tarbuck. His large back was
turned to them with an expression at once ostentatious and discreet.
Thesiger had the idea that it had been there for some considerable
time, probably ever since his own appearance. Mr. Tarbuck's back
said plainly that, though Mr. Tarbuck neither looked nor listened,
that he would scorn the action, yet he was there, at his friend's
service if she wanted him.

"I'm afraid," said Roma Lennox, "he hasn't found him."

"He doesn't seem to be looking."

(He didn't.)

"Oh, I fancy," said she, "he's just squinting round."

"Can I do anything?"

"Why, yes, you could sit here and watch the Casino while I go and
speak to Mr. Tarbuck."

She went and spoke to him. Thesiger saw how affectionately the large
man bent his head to her.

She returned to Thesig