But, for some uncanny cause, Kathryn was confident that Northrup _was_ at his first address. It was so like him to creep into a hole and be very dramatic and secretive. It was his temperament, Kathryn felt, and she steeled herself against him.
On the morning that Northrup staggered over the rubbish of Hunter's Point toward Twombley's, Kathryn took her place in her limousine--her nice little travelling bag at her feet--and viewed with complacency the back of her Japanese chauffeur who had absorbed and digested all her directions and would be, henceforth, a well-oiled, safe-running part of the machinery, without curiosity or opinions.
They stopped for luncheon at a comfortable road-house, rested for an hour, and then went on. It was mid-afternoon when the yellow house at the crossroads made its appeal to be questioned.
"I'll run in and ask the way," Kathryn explained, and slowly went up to the door that once opened so humorously to Northrup's touch. Again the door responded, and a bit startled, Kathryn found herself in the presence of a dull-faced girl seated by the table apparently doing nothing.
"I beg your pardon. Really, I did knock--the door just opened." Kathryn was confused and stepped back.
In all her dun-coloured life Jan-an had never seen anything so wonderful as the girl on the doorstep. She was not at all sure but that she was one of Noreen's fiction creatures. There was a story that Northrup had told Noreen about Eve's Other Children, and for an instant Jan-an estimated the likelihood of the stranger being one--she wasn't altogether wrong, either!
"What you want?" she asked cautiously. Jan-an was, as she put it, "all skew-y," for the work of the evening before had brought her to a more confused state than usual.
The world was widening--she included Northrup now in her circle of protection and she wasn't sure what Eve's Other Children were capable of doing.
"I want to find out the way to the inn, Heathcote Inn." Kathryn smiled alluringly.
"Why don't you look at the sign?" There was witchery about that sign, certainly.
"I did not see the sign. Please excuse me." Then, "Do you happen to know if there is a Mr. Northrup at the inn?"
"He sleeps there!" Jan-an looked stupid but honest. "Days, he takes to the woods."