A Rogue by Compulsion: An Affair of the Secret ServiceBridges, Victor
General
A Rogue by Compulsion: An Affair of the Secret Service
Bridges, Victor
Secret service -- Fiction; Spy stories
"Where's Joyce?" I asked.
"She's at the flat," he announced. "She said she would wait there
until she heard from us. I saw her last night, you know. I was having
supper at Hatchett's with Latimer when she turned up with your letter.
She'd come on from his rooms."
"There are many women," I said softly, "but there is only one Joyce."
Tommy chuckled. "That's what Latimer thinks. After she left us--I was
staying the night with him in Jermyn Street and we'd all three gone
back there to talk it over--he said to me in that funny drawling way
of his: 'You know, Morrison, that girl will be wasted, even on Lyndon.
She ought to be in the Secret Service.'"
I laughed. "I'm grateful to the Secret Service," I said, "but there
are limits even to gratitude."
For perhaps three-quarters of an hour we remained undisturbed, while
Latimer was presumably presenting his report to the authorities. Every
now and then we heard footsteps pass down the corridor, and on one
occasion an electric bell went off with a sudden vicious energy that
I should never have expected in a Government office. The time passed
quickly, for we had plenty to talk about; indeed, our only objection
to waiting was the fact that we were both beginning to get infernally
hungry, and it seemed likely to be some time yet before we should be
able to get anything to eat.
At last there came a discreet knock at the door, and an elderly
clean-shaven person with the manners of a retired butler appeared
noiselessly upon the threshold. He bowed slightly to us both.
"Lord Lammersfield wishes to see you, gentlemen. If you will be good
enough to follow me, I will conduct you to his presence."
We followed him along the corridor and up a rather dingy staircase,
when he tapped gently at a door immediately facing us. "Come in,"
called out a voice, and with another slight inclination of his head
our guide turned the handle and ushered us into the room.
It was a solemn-looking sort of apartment furnished chiefly with
bookcases, and having a general atmosphere of early Victorian
stuffiness. At a big table in the centre two men were sitting. One was
Latimer; the other I recognized immediately as Lord Lammersfield.
I had never known him personally in the old days, but I had often seen
him walking in the Park, or run across him at such popular rest
cures as Kempton and Sandown Park. He had changed very little in the
interval; his hair was perhaps a trifle greyer, otherwise he looked
just the same debonair picturesque figure that the Opposition
caricaturists had loved to flesh their pencils on.
He got up as we entered, regarding us both with a pleasant whimsical
smile that put me entirely at my ease at once.
"This is Lyndon," said Latimer, indicating me; "and this is Morrison."
Lord Lammersfield came round the table and shook hands cordially with
us both.
"Sit down, gentlemen," he said, "sit down. If half of what Mr. Latimer
has told me is true, you must be extremely tired."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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