The danger was still great, but
there was a good chance that she might be in time to intervene. She
wound up her affairs in New York and, on the following Wednesday,
boarded the _Nuronia_ bound for Southampton.
The _Nuronia_ is one of the slowest of the Cunard boats. It was
built at a time when delirious crowds used to swoon on the dock if an
ocean liner broke the record by getting across in nine days. It rolled
over to Cherbourg, dallied at that picturesque port for some hours,
then sauntered across the Channel and strolled into Southampton Water
in the evening of the day on which Samuel Marlowe had sat in the lane
plotting with Webster, the valet. At almost the exact moment when Sam,
sidling through the windows of the drawing-room, slid into the cupboard
behind the piano, Mrs. Hignett was standing at the Customs barrier
telling the officials that she had nothing to declare.
Mrs. Hignett was a general who believed in forced marches. A lesser
woman might have taken the boat-train to London and proceeded to
Windles at her ease on the following afternoon.
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