impotence to bring about anything he wished,
and his increasing agony of impatience.

Suddenly Mrs. Hilbery pulled the cord with such decision that even
Anderson had to listen to the order which she leant out of the window
to give him. The carriage pulled up abruptly in the middle of Whitehall
before a large building dedicated to one of our Government offices. In
a second Mrs. Hilbery was mounting the steps, and Ralph was left in too
acute an irritation by this further delay even to speculate what errand
took her now to the Board of Education. He was about to jump from the
carriage and take a cab, when Mrs. Hilbery reappeared talking genially
to a figure who remained hidden behind her.

"There's plenty of room for us all," she was saying. "Plenty of room. We
could find space for FOUR of you, William," she added, opening the door,
and Ralph found that Rodney had now joined their company. The two men
glanced at each other. If distress, shame, discomfort in its most acute
form were ever visible upon a human face, Ralph could read them all
expressed beyond the eloquence of words upon the face of his unfortunate
companion. But Mrs. Hilbery was either completely unseeing or determined
to appear so. She went on talking; she talked, it seemed to both
the young men, to some one outside, up in the air. She talked about
Shakespeare, she apostrophized the human race, she proclaimed the
virtues of divine poetry, she began to recite verses which broke down
in the middle. The great advantage of her discourse was that it was
self-supporting. It nourished itself until Cheyne Walk was reached upon
half a dozen grunts and murmurs.

"Now," she said, alighting briskly at her door, "here we are!"

There was something airy and ironical in her voice and expression as she
turned upon the doorstep and looked at them, which filled both Rodney
and Denham with the same misgivings at having trusted their fortunes to
such an ambassador; and Rodney actually hesitated upon the threshold and
murmured to Denham:

"You go in, Denham. I..." He was turning tail, but the door opening and
the familiar look of the house asserting its charm, he bolted in on the
wake of the others, and the door shut upon his escape. Mrs. Hilbery led
the way upstairs. She took them to the drawing-room. The fire burnt
as usual, the little tables were laid with china and silver. There was
nobody there.

"Ah," she said, "Katharine's not here. She must be upstairs in her room.