"I won't put you to so much trouble, Betty," he replied. "There's no reason in the world that I should. A call over the telephone and in five minutes I am at your side."
Betty Harlowe seemed in doubt to press her invitation or not.
"It looks a little inhospitable in me," she began, and the door opened, and Hanaud entered the room.
"I left my hat and stick here," he said. He picked them up and bowed to the girls.
"You have seen everything, Monsieur Hanaud?" Betty asked.
"Everything, Mademoiselle. I shall not trouble you again until the report of the analysis is in my hands. I wish you a good morning."
Betty slipped off the window-seat and accompanied him out into the hall. It appeared to Jim Frobisher that she was seeking to make some amends for her ill-humour; and when he heard her voice he thought to detect in it some note of apology.
"I shall be very glad if you will let me know the sense of that report as soon as possible," she pleaded. "You, better than any one, will understand that this is a difficult hour for me."
"I understand very well, Mademoiselle," Hanaud answered gravely. "I will see to it that the hour is not prolonged."
Jim, watching them through the doorway, as they stood together in the sunlit hall, felt ever so slight a touch upon his arm. He wheeled about quickly. Ann Upcott was at his side with all the liveliness and even the delicate colour gone from her face, and a wild and desperate appeal in her eyes.