mentioned in it was searched for, but proved to be taking a trip through Italy and Switzerland. Correspondence with him brought no light on the subject. Kerry had not yet found her job and settled down. Kerry had meant what she said and would not communicate with the lawyer until she was safely settled on her own. But how was Kerry getting on without money?
“You don’t think anything terrible has happened to Kerry, do you, Sam?” Isobel asked anxiously one morning. “I can’t think she would stay away from her only little mother so long unless something had happened. Of course, Kerry was always clever—”
“Kerry is a little devil!” said Sam crossly. “She doesn’t want to be found! But I swear she shall. She can’t double-cross us much longer. We’ve got the best detectives in London, and I’ll tell you what,
they know their onions!”
“Then why don’t they find Kerry?” wailed Isobel, beginning to cry. “I want Kerry! If you hadn’t made me be so pre–cip–i–tate she wouldn’t have run away! I t–t–told you she d–d–didn’t like me to m–m–marry so soon after Shannon—!”
“There! Now you can cut that out, old lady! Hear that? I’m not going to be haunted with Shannon Kavanaugh. He’s dead and you can let him stay buried. If I had thought you were so stuck on him I’d have married that woman you saw me with that day at the art gallery. She would have taken me in a minute if I’d asked her, and she didn’t have any dead husbands to bawl about or any brats to play hide-and-seek with. And I can tell you right now, if Kerry doesn’t turn up within the next twenty-four hours, you and I are going to cut loose and go on the yacht! I’ve waited long enough! There are plenty of other pretty girls I can get to go with us if Kerry is so high-hat she has to keep out of sight. Let her get left behind then! Let her eat a little humble pie!
There
—you go bawling again! What did I get married for anyway?”
“Oh, Sam! Don’t talk that way!” pleaded Isobel in new horror. “You said you l–l–l–oved me!”
“Well, so I did, baby, but I wasn’t counting on your being a sobsister. Come, mop up and we’ll go for a ride, and mebbe we’ll stop at a shop or two and buy Kerry some pretty togs for the yachting trip. How so, baby, will you like that?”
So Isobel was appeased, wiped her eyes, powdered her delicate nose, and went prettily off to enjoy a morning shopping for Kerry, with a few more trifles for herself thrown in. So easily was Kerry’s mother reassured. She was having a delightful time doing the things she had always wanted to do, spending the money she had never hoped to have, buying the things for which she had always longed. She really felt, too, as if she were being most forgiving and gracious to rebellious Kerry, buying her lovely clothes and evening gowns, and velvet wraps fit for a princess.
That night when they came back to Sam’s hotel after a noisy and exhausting round of pleasure they found a note from the lawyer saying that they had discovered Miss Kavanaugh’s name on a sailing list of a ship bound for the United States. They had cabled but could get no information about the young lady after she landed—
“That settles it!” said Sam, more than genially drunk as usual. “We’ll start for the yacht tomorrow morning. Get a hustle on, baby! We’re not waiting any longer. Our search is ended!”
“But I don’t understand,” said Isobel anxiously.
“No, you wouldn’t, baby, but I do!” wagged Sam Morgan. “I said our search is ended!”
“Oh, do you mean we will catch the ship and get Kerry?”
“There you go, baby! You haven’t the sense you were born with. Don’t you know that ship landed in New York? We got to put the whole thing in the detectives’ hands and just go off and have our honeymoon. Kerry is a little devil, I tell you, and we can’t be bothered waiting around for her any longer. See, old lady? We’re going on our