"What does she want here?"
"She came alone, poor little thing," he answered, "and on a wild-goose
chase. I never heard anything so pathetic in my life. She ought to be in
short frocks, playing with her dolls, and she has come here four
thousand miles to a city she knows nothing of, to steal back--well, you
know what. One could laugh if it were not so pathetic."
"Little fool!" Stella said, half contemptuously, and yet with a note of
regret in her tone.
"I thought, perhaps," Vine said, "you might find out where she is and go
and talk common sense to her. If there is anything else we can do, I'd
like to, only I hate the thought of a pretty child like that wandering
about London on such an absurd quest."
"Do you know where she is to be found?" Stella asked quietly.
"I have no idea," Vine answered. "The last time I saw her was in my own
rooms. I am only sorry that I let her go."
Stella looked up at him quickly.
"Your own rooms!" she repeated. "What do you mean?"
"Well," he answered, "with the extraordinary luck which comes sometimes
to babies, she overheard two men talking about me and arranging to meet
at a certain hour at my flat.
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