Dudley's hand, the one Max could see from where he stood, moved convulsively. After another short pause, Carrie raised her head, and their eyes met. Each evidently saw something oddly interesting in the face of the other. "I shall have to make some inquiries about you," said he at last. "Very well. You can go and make them." Her tone was matter-of-fact, but neither impudent nor defiant. She did not seem to care. "This Dick Barker, who has been nabbed, as you elegantly express it, is some sweetheart of yours, I suppose? And you have persuaded Mrs. Higgs to send me this absurd message, asking me to appear for him?" "No. He's nothing to me. Mrs. Higgs wants him got off, because if he's convicted he'll tell all he knows, or at least enough to set the police on." "And what is that to me?" Another pause, during which she looked down. Then Carrie raised her eyes again, and looked at him steadily. "Oh, well, you know best." Dudley turned away, muttering something under his breath. But the next moment he faced her again. "And you are waiting to take my answer back?" "Mrs. Higgs said there would be no answer." "Then what are you waiting for?" "To see whether there is one or not." "And you're going straight back with it to your granny, whatever it is?" asked Dudley, with the same sharp tone of cross-examination. "No. I am not going back to her. But I shall give the message to some one who is." There was another pause, longer than any of the previous ones. Then Dudley said, shortly: "You need not wait here any longer. I am going to see her myself." Carrie had got upon her feet in the automatic manner she had maintained throughout the interview. "Going to the wharf, are you?" she said, with the first sign of human interest she had shown. "Oh, very well." There was something noticeable in her tone, something which made Max suspicious and anxious on his friend's account. He came round the table with rapid steps, touched Dudley's shoulder, and said, in a low voice: "I'll go with you!" At the sound of his voice Carrie started violently, and looked up at Max, staring with eyes full of wonder and something very like delight. The rigidity with which she had held herself, the automatic manner, the hard, off-hand tone, all disappeared at once; and it was a new, a transformed Carrie, the fascinating, wayward, irresistible girl he had remembered, who gave him a smile and a nod, as she said, in a voice full of the old charm he remembered: "You! Is it you?" Then, breathlessly, with a change to anxiety in her voice: "And are you going, too?" "Yes. I'm going with my friend," said Max, as he came forward and held out a hand, into which she put hers very shyly; "from what I remember of my visit to your place, I think two visitors are better than one." "I don't know whether granny will think so," said Carrie, still in the same altered voice.