"And that makes it seem rather silly to you?"
"Yes, it does seem silly," he acknowledged.
Then a sudden idea fell like a hailstone out of the heavens themselves.
"I know what's the matter," I cried. "I know why you're not acting out the part. It's because you're not on the right stage. You know it's an empty rehearsal—you haven't been able to let yourself go!"
"I'm sorry," he said, with the contrition of a child, and with his repeated hand-gesture of helplessness.
I swung about on him, scarcely hearing the words he was uttering.
"We've got to get into that office," I declared. "We've got to get into Lockwood's own office."
He shook his head, without looking up at me.
"I've been over that office, every nook and cranny of it!" he reiterated.
"But what I want to know is, can we get into it?"