can't return. My private
opinion of Mr. Pendennis is that he's a cranky and exacting old pig! He
resented Anne's leaving him, and I surmise this illness of his is only
a ruse to get her back again. Anne ought to be firmer with him!"

I laughed. Mary, as I knew, had always been "firm" with her "poppa," in
her girlish days; had, in fact, ruled him with a rod of iron--cased in
velvet, indeed, but inflexible, nevertheless!

I started on my delayed journey next morning, and during the long day
and night of travel my spirits were steadily on the up-grade.

Cassavetti, the murder, all the puzzling events of the last few days,
receded to my mental horizon--vanished beyond it--as boat and train bore
me swiftly onwards, away from England, towards Anne Pendennis.

Berlin at last. I drove from the Potsdam station to the nearest
barber's,--I needed a shave badly, though I had made myself otherwise
fairly spick and span in the toilet car,--and thence to the hotel Anne
had mentioned.

She would be expecting me, for I had despatched the promised wire when I
started.

"Send my card up to Fraulein Pendennis at once," I said to the waiter
who came forward to receive me.

He looked at me--at the card--but did not take it.

"Fraulein Pendennis is not here," he asserted. "Herr Pendennis has
already departed, and the Fraulein has not been here at all!"

CHAPTER X

DISQUIETING NEWS

I stared at the man incredulously.

"Herr Pendennis has departed, and the Fraulein has not been here at
all!" I repeated. "You must be mistaken, man! The Fraulein was to arrive
here on Monday, at about this time."

He protested that he had spoken the truth, and summoned the manager,
who confirmed the information.

Yes, Herr Pendennis had been unfortunately indisposed, but the
sickness had not been so severe as to necessitate that the so
charming and dutiful Fraulein should hasten to him. He had a telegram
received,--doubtless from the Fraulein herself,--and thereupon with much
haste departed. He drove to the Friedrichstrasse station, but that was
all that was known of his movements. Two letters had arrived for Miss
Pendennis, which her father had taken, and there was also a telegram,
delivered since he left.

Both father and daughter, it seemed, were well known at the hotel, where
they always stayed during their frequent visits to the German capital.

I was keenly disappointed. Surely some malignant fate was intervening
between Anne and