Fifteen
AN ADDRESS
T he Royal Clarence was the oldest hotel in the town. It had a mellow¹ bowfronted fa?ade and an old- worldatmosphere. It still catered² for the type of family who came for a month to the seaside.
Miss Narracott who presided behind the reception desk was a full-bosomed lady of forty-seven with an old-fashioned style of hairdressing.
She unbent to Giles whom her accurate eye summed up as “one of our nice people.” And Giles, who had a readytongue and a persuasive³ way with him when he liked, spun⁴ a very good tale. He had a bet on with his wife—about hergodmother—and whether she had stayed at the Royal Clarence eighteen years ago. His wife had said that they couldnever settle the dispute because of course all the old registers would be thrown away by this time, but he had saidNonsense. An establishment like the Royal Clarence would keep its registers. They must go back for a hundred years.
“Well, not quite that, Mr. Reed. But we do keep all our old Visitors’ Books as we prefer to call them. Veryinteresting names in them, too. Why, the King stayed here once when he was Prince of Wales, and Princess Adlemarof Holstein-Rotz used to come every winter with her lady-in-waiting. And we’ve had some very famous novelists, too,and Mr. Dovey, the portrait-painter.”
Giles responded in suitable fashion with interest and respect and in due course the sacred volume for the year inquestion was brought out and exhibited to him.
Having first had various illustrious names pointed⁵ out to him, he turned the pages to the month of August.
Yes, here surely was the entry he was seeking.
Major and Mrs. Setoun Erskine, Anstell Manor⁶, Daith, Northumberland, July 27th—August 17th.
“If I may copy this out?”
“Of course, Mr. Reed. Paper and ink—Oh, you have your pen. Excuse me, I must just go back to the outer office.”
She left him with the open book, and Giles set to work.
On his return to Hillside he found Gwenda in the garden, bending over the herbaceous border.

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