"Ah, why not?" the Englishman exclaimed. "Where are they, Mr. Preston?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know, Mr. Preston?" He was frankly puzzled now. "I say—I—I beg your pardon—but—I say, astonishingly fine girl that, you know, Mr. Preston; and you know, I understood when I last saw you all at Ely that you were to travel together a bit, and I rather more than fancied that—but you haven't had a misunderstanding, surely, I hope?"
"Oh, no further one after Ely, Mr. Dunneston," the American answered. "I merely left them in Lincolnshire the same morning after you saw us. I have not seen them since."
"In Lincolnshire?" The Englishman's bewilderment increased steadily. "Just after you left Ely?"
"Yes."
"But I say, I understood—that is, they told us in Ely, and you gave us to understand, too, that you were to keep on with them."
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