oul.

If I had liked, I could have unravelled the whole tangle for Sir
Lionel's still puzzled mind; but if I had done so, I should have been
returning cat-claw for cat-claw; so I pretended to be "lost in it, my
lord"; and, indeed, it was true that I couldn't understand why the
Tyndals had failed me.

Sir Lionel explained that, just before reaching Bideford the silencer
worked loose, and so got upon Mrs. Norton's nerves that Apollo was
stopped in the pouring rain for Young Nick to right the wrong. As if to
prove the truth of the proverb, "the more haste the less speed," in his
hurry poor Buddha burnt his hand. While he was wringing it like a
distracted goblin, along came the Tyndal car, which had left Tintagel
about half an hour after Apollo. To Sir Lionel's amazement, no me!
Questions on his part; according to him, idiotic answers on the part of
the Tyndals. _He_ had thought, of course, I was going with them. _They_
had thought that I'd changed my mind, and gone earlier with him.
Everybody confused, apologetic, repeating the same silly excuses over
and over, three or four times. Nobody showing the slightest sign of
having a remnant of common sense.

"By Jove! I could have cheerfully executed the lot of them--all but the
boy, who seemed to have some glimmerings of sanity," grumbled Sir
Lionel. "He had wanted to run up and knock at your door, to make sure
you really had gone; but somebody--he began to say who, when Mrs. Tyndal
stepped on his foot--forbade him to do it."

I think I can guess who the somebody was, can't you? Though I don't see
what arguments she can have used to persuade the really good-natured
Tyndals to abandon me.

The rest of the story is, that when Sir Lionel found I had been left
behind, he said he would at once turn back and fetch me. Judging from
one or two things he let slip inadvertently, I fancy he wanted Emily to
come with him, but she drew the line at chaperoning in wet weather, and
missing her tea. She proposed telegraphing for me to come on by rail.
Sir Lionel wouldn't hear of my making such a journey unaccompanied--me,
a simple little French schoolgirl who had never travelled alone in her
life! Then Mrs. Senter, kind creature, volunteered to be his companion,
if he must return; but Sir Lionel firmly refused the unselfish offer,
saying he wouldn't for the world put her to so much unnecessary trouble.
Nick he would have brought, but the unfortunate brown image was
suffering so much pain