At thirty-three minutes past seven he stood on the platform of the station at Southampton--a clear hour before the train containing Owen could possibly arrive.
Making a few inquiries here, but too impatient to pursue his investigation carefully and inductively, he went into the town.
At the expiration of another half-hour he had visited seven hotels and inns, large and small, asking the same questions at each, and always receiving the same reply--nobody of that name, or answering to that description, had been there. A boy from the telegraph-office had called, asking for the same persons, if they recollected rightly.
He reflected awhile, struck again by a painful thought that they might possibly have decided to cross the Channel by the night-boat.
Then he hastened off to another quarter of the town to pursue his inquiries among hotels of the more old-fashioned and quiet class.
His stained and weary appearance obtained for him but a modicum of civility, wherever he went, which made his task yet more difficult.
He called at three several houses in this neighbourhood, with the same result as before. He entered the door of the fourth house whilst the clock of the nearest church was striking eight.
'Have a tall gentleman named Manston, and a young wife arrived here this evening?' he asked again, in words which had grown odd to his ears from very familiarity.
'A new-married couple, did you say?' 'They are, though I didn't say so.' 'They have taken a sitting-room and bedroom, number thirteen.' 'Are they indoors?' 'I don't know. Eliza!' 'Yes, m'm.' 'See if number thirteen is in--that gentleman and his wife.' 'Yes, m'm.' 'Has any telegram come for them?' said Edward, when the maid had gone on her errand.
'No--nothing that I know of.' 'Somebody did come and ask if a Mr. and Mrs. Masters, or some such name, were here this evening,' said another voice from the back of the bar-parlour.
'And did they get the message?' 'Of course they did not--they were not here--they didn't come till half-an-hour after that. The man who made inquiries left no message. I told them when they came that they, or a name something like theirs, had been asked for, but they didn't seem to understand why it should be, and so the matter dropped.' The chambermaid came back. 'The gentleman is not in, but the lady is. Who shall I say?' 'Nobody,' said Edward. For it now became necessary to reflect upon his method of proceeding. His object in finding their whereabouts --apart from the wish to assist Owen--had been to see Manston, ask him flatly for an explanation, and confirm the request of the message in the presence of Cytherea--so as to prevent the possibility of the steward's palming off a story upon Cytherea, or eluding her brother when he came. But here were two important modifications of the expected condition of affairs. The telegram had not been received, and Cytherea was in the house alone.