: at a 'private view'
at the opera, in the lobby, and that sort of thing. But she hasn't told
you?"

Lady Sandgate neither affirmed nor denied; she only turned on him her
thick lustre. "I wanted to see how much _you'd_ tell." She waited even
as for more, but this not coming she helped herself. "Once again at
dinner?"

"Yes, but alas not near her!"

"Once then at a private view?--when, with the squash they usually are,
you might have been very near her indeed!"

The young man, his hilarity quickened, took but a moment for the truth.
"Yes--it _was_ a squash!"

"And once," his hostess pursued, "in the lobby of the opera?"

"After 'Tristan'--yes; but with some awful grand people I didn't know."

She recognised; she estimated the grandeur. "Oh, the Pennimans are
nobody! But now," she asked, "you've come, you say, on 'business'?"

"Very important, please--which accounts for the hour I've ventured and
the appearance I present."

"I don't ask you too much to 'account,'" Lady Sandgate kindly said; "but
I can't not wonder if she hasn't told you what things have happened."

He cast about. "She has had no chance to tell me anything--beyond the
fact of her being here."

"Without the reason?"

"'The reason'?" he echoed.

She gave it up, going straighter. "She's with me then as an old firm
friend. Under my care and protection."

"I see"--he took it, with more penetration than enthusiasm, as a hint in
respect to himself. "She puts you on your guard."

Lady Sandgate expressed it more graciously. "She puts me on my
honour--or at least her father does."

"As to her seeing _me_"

"As to _my_ seeing at least--what may happen to her."

"Because--you say--things _have_ happened?"

His companion fairly sounded him. "You've only talked--when you've
met--of 'art'?"

"Well," he smiled, "'art is long'!"

"Then I hope it may see you through! But you should know first that Lord
Theign is presently due--"

"_Here_, back already from abroad?"--he was all alert.

"He has not yet gone--he comes up this morning to start."

"And stops here on his way?"

"To take the _train de luxe_ this afternoon to his annual Salsomaggiore.
But with so little time to spare," she went on reassuringly, "that,
to simplify--as he wired me an hour ago from Dedborough--he has given
rendezvous here to Mr. Bender, who is particularly to wait for him."

"And who may therefore arrive at any moment?"

She looked at her bracelet watch. "Scarcely b