第63章 CHAPTER XXIX(1)

"A lady to see you, sir," Jarvis announced discreetly.

Granet turned quickly around in his chair. Almost instinctively he pulled down the roll top of the desk before which he was seated. Then he rose to his feet and held out his hand. He managed with an effort to conceal the consternation which had succeeded his first impulse of surprise.

"Miss Worth!" he exclaimed.

She came towards him confidently, her hands outstretched, slim, dressed in sober black, he cheeks as pale as ever, her eyes a little more brilliant. She threw her muff into a chair and a moment afterwards sank into it herself.

"You have been expecting me?" she asked eagerly.

Granet was a little taken aback.

"I have been hoping to hear from you," he said. "You told me, if you remember, not to write.""It was better not," she assented. "Even after you left I had a great deal of trouble. That odious man, Major Thomson, put me through a regular cross-examination again, and I had to tell him at last--""What?" Granet exclaimed anxiously.

"That we were engaged to be married," she confessed. "There was really no other way out of it.""That we were engaged," Granet repeated blankly.

She nodded.

"He pressed me very hard," she went on, "and I am afraid I made some admissions--well, there were necessary--which, to say the least of it, were compromising. There was only one way out of it decently for me, and I took it. You don't mind?""Of course not," he replied.

"There was father to be considered," she went on. "He was furious at first--""You told your father?" he interrupted.

"I had to," she explained, smoothing her muff. "He was there all the time that Thomson man was cross-examining me.""Then your father believes in our engagement, too?""He does," she answered drily, "or I am afraid you would have heard a little more from Major Thomson before now. Ever since that night, father has been quite impossible to live with. He says he has to being a part of his work all over again.""The bombs really did do some damage, then?" he asked.

She nodded, looking at him for a moment curiously.

"Yes," she acknowledged, "they did more harm than any one knows. The place is like a fortress now. They say that if they can find the other man who helped to light that flare, he will be shot in five minutes."Granet, who had been standing with his elbow upon the mantelpiece, leaned over and took a cigarette from a box.

"Then, for his sake, let us hope that they do not find him," he remarked.

"And ours," she said softly.

Granet stood and looked at her steadfastly, the match burning in his fingers.

Then he threw it away and lit another. The interval had been full of unadmitted tension, which suddenly passed.

"Shall you think I am horribly greedy," she asked, "if I say that I should like something to eat? I am dying of hunger."Granet for a moment was startled. Then he moved towards the bell.

"How absurd of me!" he exclaimed. "Of course, you have just come up, haven't you?""I have come straight from the station here," she replied.

He paused.

"Where are you staying, then?"

She shook her head.

"I don't know yet," she admitted.

"You don't know?" he repeated.

She met his gaze without flinching. There was a little spot of colour in her cheeks, however, and her lips quivered.

"You see," she explained, "things became absolutely impossible for me at Market Burnham. I won't say that they disbelieved me--not my father, at any rate--but he seems to think that it was somehow my fault--that if you hadn't been there that night the thing wouldn't have happened. I am watched the whole of the time, in fact not a soul has said a civil word to me--since you left. I just couldn't stand it any longer. I packed up this morning and Icame away without saying a word to any one."

Granet glanced at the clock. It was a quarter past ten.

"Well, the first thing to do is to get you something to eat," he said; ringing the bell. "Do you mind having something here or would you like to go to a restaurant?""I should much prefer having it here," she declared. "I am not fit to go anywhere, and I am tired."He rang the bell and gave Jarvis a few orders. The girl stood up before the glass, took off her hat and smoothed her hair with her hands. She had the air of being absolutely at home.

"Did you come up without any luggage at all?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"I have a dressing-bag and a few things downstairs on a taxicab," she said.

"I told the man to stop his engine and wait for a time--until I had seen you,"she added, turning around.

There was a very slight smile upon her lips, the glimmer of something that was almost appealing, in her eyes. Granet took her hand and patted it kindly.

Her response was almost hysterical.

"It's very sweet of you to trust me like this," he said. "Jarvis will bring you something to eat, then I'll take you round to your aunt's. Where is it she lives--somewhere in Kensington, isn't it? Tomorrow we must talk things over."She threw herself back once more in the easy-chair and glanced around her.

"I should like," she decided, "to talk them over now."He glanced towards the door.

"Just as you please," he said, "only Jarvis will be in with your sandwiches directly."She brushed aside his protest.

"I was obliged," she continued, "to say that I was engaged to you, to save you from something--I don't know what. The more I have thought about it, the more terrible it has all seemed. I am not going to even ask you for any explanation. I--I daren't."Granet looked at his cigarette for a moment thoughtfully. Then he threw it into the fire.