'Prompt?' smiled the doctor, shaking hands, and removing his overcoat with fatigued gestures.
'Yes; you must have caught the 4 p.m. express, and come via Folkstone and Boulogne.'
'I did,' said Darcy.
'And yet I expect you didn't get my telegram till after two o'clock.'
'I have received no telegram from you, my dear Mr. Hugo. It had not arrived when I left.'
'Then your presence here to-night is due to a coincidence merely?'
'Not at all,' said Darcy; 'it is due to an extreme desire on my part to talk to you.'
'The desire is mutual,' Hugo answered, gently insisting that Darcy should put away his cigarettes and take a Muria. 'Dare I ask—'
Darcy had become suddenly nervous, and he burst out, interrupting Hugo:
'The suicide of Mr. Ravengar was in this morning's Paris papers. And I may tell you at once that it's in connection with that affair that I'm here.'