The wind had increased, by this time, and the rain was coming down in slanting and stinging sheets.

But her spirit did not fail her.
From the water-front, deserted and rain-swept, she called a passing street carriage, and drove to the Hotel Bristol.

There she sent the driver to ask if any luggage had arrived from Venice for Miss Allen.
None had arrived, and Miss Allen, naturally, appeared in great perturbation before the sympathetic but helpless hotel manager.

She next inquired if it was possible to ascertain when the Cunard steamer sailed.
"The _Slavonia_, madam, leaves the harbor at daybreak!" "At daybreak! Then I must go on board tonight, at once!" "I fear it is impossible, madam.

The _bora_ is blowing, as you see, and the harbor is empty!" "But I _must_ get on board!" she cried, and this time her dismay and despair were not mere dissimulation.
The landlord shrugged his shoulders, while Frank, calling out a peremptory order, in Italian, to her driver, left him at the curb looking after her through the driving rain, in bewilderment.
She went first to the steamship offices.