oft and her mouth delightful. Just at that moment, however, there were
new and very firm lines in her face.

"Henry," she said sternly, "you are purposely fencing with me. Mr.
Lessingham's taste in clothes, or Jimmy Dumble's comings and goings, are
not what I want to hear or talk about. You went to London, unwillingly
enough, to keep your promise to me. I want to know whether you have
succeeded in getting anything from the Admiralty?"

"Nothing but the cold shoulder, my dear," he answered with a little
chuckle.

"Do you mean to say that they offered you nothing at all?" she
persisted. "You may have been out of the service too long for them to
start you with a modern ship, but surely they could have given you an
auxiliary cruiser, or a secondary command of some sort?"

"They didn't even offer me a washtub, dear," he confessed. "My name's on
a list, they said--"

"Oh, that list!" Philippa interrupted angrily. "Henry, I really can't
bear it. Couldn't they find you anything on land?"

"My dear girl," he replied a little testily, "what sort of a figure
should I cut in an office! No one can read my writing, and I couldn't
add up a column of figures to save my life. What is it?" he added, as
the door opened, and Mills made his appearance.

"Dumble is here to see you, sir."

"Show him in at once," his master directed with alacrity. "Come in,
Jimmy," he went on, raising his voice. "I've got something to show you
here."

Philippa's lips were drawn a little closer together. She swept past her
husband on her way to the door.

"I hope you will be so good," she said, looking back, "as to spare me
half an hour of your valuable time this evening. This is a subject which
I must discuss with you further at once."

"As urgent as all that, eh?" Sir Henry replied, stopping to light a
cigarette. "Righto! You can have the whole of my evening, dear, with the
greatest of pleasure.--Now then, Jimmy!"

CHAPTER VI

Jimmy Dumble possessed a very red face and an extraordinary capacity for
silence. He stood a yard or two inside the room, twirling his hat in
his hand. Sir Henry, after the closing of the door, did not for a moment
address his visitor. There was a subtle but unmistakable change in his
appearance as he stood with his hands in his pockets, and a frown on
his forehead, whistling softly to himself, his eyes fixed upon the door
through which his wife had vanished. He swung round at last towards the
telephone.

"Stand