"Then she is all alone in town? It must be terrible for her,
waiting there without any news of me. It is a pity that she did not
go home. It would not have mattered about me, and it would have
been so much better for her among her old friends. They would all
have sympathised with her so much."
"I quite agreed with her, Bertha, and think still that it was
better that she should stay in London. I am sure the sympathy would
do her harm rather than good. As it is, now she will be kept up by
the belief that she is doing all in her power for you, by saving
you from the hideous amount of talk and chatter there would be if
this affair were known."
"Of course, it would be horrid, Frank, and perhaps you are right,
but it must be an awful trial."
"I have done all I could to set her mind at rest," Frank said. "I
wrote to her directly I arrived at Gibraltar, and again as soon as
I got the letter from Madeira saying that the brigantine had
touched there. I wrote from Madeira again with what news I could
pick up, and again from Porto Rico, from the Virgin Islands, and
from San Domingo. Of course, from there I was able to say that the
scent was getting hot, and that I had no doubt I should not be long
before I fell in with the brigantine.
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