o desire to consult Lucas.

"Why don't you see Colonel Rannion?" she Suggested.

"Jove! That's a scheme. Never thought of him!"

Her satisfaction at the answer was childlike, and he was filled with
delight that it should be so. They launched themselves into an
interminable discussion about every possible arrangement of everything.
But in a pause of it he destroyed its tremendous importance by remarking
casually:

"No hurry, of course. I bet you I shall be kept knocking about here for
months."

CHAPTER III

IN THE MACHINE

I

Colonel Rannion was brother of the wife of the man for whom George had
built the house at Hampstead. George had met him several times at the
dinners and other reunions to which a sympathetic architect is often
invited in the dwelling that he has created. Colonel Rannion had greatly
liked his sister's house, had accordingly shown much esteem for George,
and had even spoken of ordering a house for himself.

Just as breakfast was being served, George had the idea of ringing up
the Hampstead people for the Colonel's address, which he obtained at
once. The Colonel was staying at the Berkeley Hotel. The next moment he
got the Berkeley, and the Colonel in person. The Colonel remembered him
instantly. George said he wanted to see him. What about? Well, a
commission. The Colonel said he had to leave the hotel in twenty-five
minutes. "I can be with you in less than a quarter of an hour," said
George--or rather, not George, but some subconscious instinct within
him, acting independently of him. The children, with nurse, were in the
dining-room, waiting to breakfast with father. They were washed, they
were dressed; the dining-room had been cleaned; the pleasant smell of
breakfast-cooking wandered through the rooms; since the early talk
between George and Lois in the silent, sleeping house the house had
gradually come to life; it was now in full being--even to the girl
scrubbing the front steps--except that Lois was asleep. Exhausted after
the strange and crucial scene, she had dozed off, and had never moved
throughout George's dressing.

Now he rushed into the dining-room--"I have to go, nurse. Fardy can't
have his breakfast with you!"--and rushed out. A minute previously he
had felt a serious need of food after the long, sleepless morning. The
need vanished. He scurried up Elm Park Gardens like a boy in the warm,
fresh air, and stopped a taxi. He was extremely excited. None but Lois
knew