"Time lost—all that time lost!" wailed the old man and began to cry. "Come, come, Mr. Janney," said Whitney, "don’t despond. It’s not as bad as all that, and I’m pretty confident we’ll have her back all right before very long." Mr. Janney, with his face in his handkerchief, emitted sounds that no one could understand. His wife silenced him with a peremptory, "Be quiet, Sam," and returned to Miss Maitland: "You say you dissuaded her from going into Justin’s. Why did you do that?" For the first time the girl lost her even poise. As she answered her voice was unsteady: "We were so pressed for time and I knew I could get through much quicker without her. That’s why I did it—begged her to stay in the taxi and she said she would,"—she stopped, biting on her under lip, evidently unable to go on. There was a moment’s silence broken by Mrs. Janney’s voice low and grim: "The man heard you and knew that was his chance." Miss Maitland, her eyes down, the bitten lip showing red against its fellow, said huskily: "You must blame me—you can’t help it—but I’d rather have died than had such a thing happen." Mr. Janney began to give forth inarticulate sounds again and his wife said with a sort of dreary resignation: "Oh, I don’t blame you, Miss Maitland. Nobody does. Mrs. Price is not responsible; she doesn’t know what she’s saying." "Of course, of course," came in Whitney’s deep, bland voice, "we all understand Mrs. Price’s feelings—quite natural under the circumstances. And Miss Maitland’s too." He rose and pressed a bell near the door. "Now if you’ve heard all you want I’ll call in George and we’ll talk this over. And Miss Maitland," he turned to her, urbanely kind and courteous, "could I trouble you to go back to Mr. Quincy’s office; just for a little while? We won’t keep you waiting very long this time." A very dapper young man had answered the summons and under his escort Esther withdrew. Whitney went to a third door connecting with his son’s rooms, opened it and said in a low voice: "George, go and get Molly. We’re ready for her now." Coming back, he stood for a moment by the desk, and swept the faces of his clients with a meaning look: "What you’re going to hear from Mrs. Babbitts will be something of a shock. She’s unearthed several rather startling facts that in my opinion bear on this present event and what led up to it. It’s a peculiar situation and involves not only Price but Miss Maitland." Mrs. Janney stared: "Miss Maitland and Chapman! What sort of a situation?" "At this stage I’ll simply say mysterious. But I’m afraid, my dear friend, that your confidence in the young woman has been misplaced. However, before I go any further I’ll let you hear what Mrs. Babbitts has to say and draw your own conclusions."