The Missioner (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...To a casual observer she might have seemed unmoved. Deyes, however, was watching her closely, and he understood. "I am sorry," he said, "to have so little to tell you. But that is the beginning and the end of it. The man had gone away." "That is precisely what I desired to ascertain," she said. "It seemed to me possible that the man had come to England. I wished to know for certain whether it was true or not." "I think," Deyes said, withdrawing his cigarette and looking at it thoughtfully, "that it is true." "You have any further reason for thinking so," she asked, "beyond your casual inquiries?" "Well, yes " he admitted. "I went a little farther than those casual inquiries. It seemed such a meagre report to bring you." "Go on " "The ordinary person," he continued smoothly, "would never believe the extreme difficulty with which one collects any particulars as to the home life of a guide. More than once I felt inclined to give up the task in despair. It seemed to me that a guide could have no home, that he must sleep in odd moments on a bench at the Hotel de Luxe. I tried to fancy a guide in the bosom of his family, carving a Sunday joint, and surrounded by Mrs. Guide and the little Guides. I couldn't do it. It seemed to me somehow grotesque. Just as I was giving it up in despair, the commissionaire at a night cafe" in Montmartre told me exactly what I wanted to know. He showed me the house where Johnny, as they called him, had a room." "You went there?" she asked. "I did," he answered. "It was locked up?" "On the contrary," he declared, "Mrs. or Miss Guide was at home, and very pl...