In considerable anger he turned to follow her, but he pulled himself up; there was very little use in that and no need for it either; he was sure she was far too skilful a tactician to imperil an affair by unwise flight; this was a blind merely—­unless, of course, she thought of setting out to find these Dutch people, wherever they might be.  He asked the staring servant where her master and mistress were; it took time for him to make out her answers, but at last he did.  Mijnheer was at a place (or house) with a name he had never before heard, and would have been puzzled to say now from this one hearing.  It was a distant bulb farm, and Mijnheer had gone there on business; the fact that Julia had not returned home naturally did not keep the good man from his work.  These details Rawson-Clew did not know; the name only was given to him, and that conveyed nothing.  Joost, he was told, was somewhere in the bulb gardens, where, seemed unknown; Mevrouw was at the house of the notary.  Who the notary was, and where he lived, and why she had gone there were alike as obscure to this inquirer as was Julia’s probable destination.  He felt that she might have set out to find any one of these three people, or she might be lying in wait, like a foolish child, till he had gone.  He went down the drive; outside the gate he saw some idlers who had been there when he drove in a little while back; he asked them if any one answering to the girl’s description had come out.  They told him “ja,” and they also told him which direction she had taken; it was the way that led to the market, not the residential part of the town.

He was no better off for this information; there seemed nothing to be done.  It would have been little short of absurd, if, indeed, it had not been seriously compromising to Julia, for him to present himself at the house of the notary—­when he could find it—­and tell Vrouw Van Heigen he had brought Julia home and she was afraid to appear with him.  Either he and she must act together and appear together, or else he must, as she desired and now made necessary, keep out of it altogether.  Considerably annoyed with the girl, but at the same time uneasy about her, he went to his hotel.

As the morning wore on, the annoyance lessened and the uneasiness grew.  After all he was not sure that Julia had thrown away much by refusing to have the support of his company; had they two been there waiting for the Van Heigens’ return, or had they set out together to find them, he was not sure his presence would have been any help in the face of the jealous Dutch girl’s accusations.  A jealous woman, even an ordinarily foolish one, is a very dangerous thing when she is attacking a fancied rival with a chance of encompassing her overthrow.  Denah would have got her tale told, her case proven, indignation aroused and sympathy with her before the Van Heigens even saw Julia.  He wondered what she would do alone and wished he knew how she fared; he thought