CHAPTER XVI The Lacquered Club There was a sort of self-consciousness in her brain, even though she swooned; something which told her that this was the moment in all her life in which it was most necessary that she should keep her wits about her--and here she was losing them. They were willing to slip still farther away; with comfort she could have remained, to all intents and purposes, unconscious for quite a considerable length of time; but she would not. So it came about that her faintness endured but for a moment. Major Reith's ideas as to what to do with a young lady who had fainted were vague. His impulse was to return upstairs and alarm the household; but before he could put his impulse into practice the lady relieved him of his difficulties by sitting up and returning to life. "Oh, Major Reith, I've hurt my foot." He thought that he had never seen her looking prettier. He probably never had; that dressing-gown became her. "I'm very sorry." His tone was gravity itself. "Is it very bad? Let me help you to get up." He helped her; would have placed her on the chair on which was the cushion and, underneath, the bag, but she managed to make him understand that she preferred another. He was all sympathy. "Can I do anything for it, or would you rather that I let the people know?" "Thank you, I would rather that you didn't. It is painful for the moment, but I shall manage; it's the first twinge. Did you hear a strange noise upstairs?" "I did, and wondered what it was; it was that which brought me down." It was on the tip of his tongue to ask what had brought her down, but he refrained. Where she was concerned he was a man of quick perception. He was already conscious that there was something in the situation which he did not understand, which, possibly, she would rather that he did not understand. "What did you hear?" "I thought I heard someone in the hall just now, but I suppose it was you." "I expect it was. I heard something, and I came down to see what it was, tripped on the stairs, and I've been behaving like a goose ever since." "As I came round the corner from my room I saw a light flashing down in the hall. Was that you?" "A light? What light?" She went on without giving him a chance to answer the questions she asked: "Did you hear a sound as if someone was quarrelling?" "That's what roused me. First of all, I heard someone running up and down my passage----" "So did I." "I looked out to see what was up, thinking that someone might be ill; then I heard a din as if a free fight was taking place downstairs." "Did you hear anyone call out?" "I heard voices." "More than one?" "I should certainly say that there was more than one. I couldn't hear what they said, but it seemed to me that two men were slanging each other at the top of their voices for all they were worth. Then I heard something which brought me down."