“Oh, I went out of the room; but there at the door, before I could call anybody, I knocked up against that idiot Greening. He was looking for me--for you, rather--about some beastly Wark affair. I tried to explain that I wasn't in a state for business; I tried to shake him off, but he was worse than Blessington. At last, to be rid of the fellow, I went with him to the study--” “But the telegram?” Loder began; then again he checked himself. “Yes--yes--I understand,” he added, quietly. “I'm getting to the telegram! I wish you wouldn't jar me with sudden questions. I wasn't in the study more than a minute--more than five or six minutes--” His voice became confused; the strain of the connected recital was telling upon him. With nervous haste he made a rush for the end of his story. “I wasn't more than seven or eight minutes in the study; then, as I came down-stairs, Crapham met me in the hall. He told me that Lillian Astrupp had called and wished to see me. And that he had shown her into the morning-room--” “The morning-room?” Loder suddenly stepped back from the table. “The morning-room? With your telegram lying on the bureau?” His sudden speech and movement startled Chilcote. The blood rushed to his face, then died out, leaving it ashen. “Don't do that, Loder!” he cried. “I--I can't bear it!” With an immense effort Loder controlled himself. “Sorry!” he said. “Go on!” “I'm going on! I tell you I'm going on. I got a horrid shock when Chapham told me. Your story came clattering through my mind. I knew Lillian had come to see you--I knew there was going to be a scene--” “But the telegram? The telegram?” Chilcote paid no heed to the interruption. He was following his own train of ideas. “I knew she had come to see you--I knew there was going to be a scene. When I got to the morning-room my hand was shaking so that I could scarcely turn the handle; then, as the door opened, I could have cried out with relief. Eve was there as well!” “Eve?” “Yes. I don't think I was ever so glad to see her in my life.” He laughed almost hysterically. “I was quite civil to her, and she was--quite sweet to me--” Again he laughed. Loder's lips tightened. “You see, it saved the situation. Even if Lillian wanted to be nasty, she couldn't, while Eve was there. We talked for about ten minutes. We were quite an amiable trio. Then Lillian told me why she'd called. She wanted me to make a fourth in a theatre party at the 'Arcadian' to-night, and I--I was so pleased and so relieved that I said yes!” He paused and laughed again unsteadily. In his tense anxiety, Loder ground his heel into the floor. “Go on!” he said, fiercely. “Go on!”