"Another what?" I cried, looking up quickly.
"Althea's father, Paul. The Baron von Ringheim."
"The deuce!"
"I didn't know what to do. I couldn't send him away, and I did so wish you would come home. He said he was in great trouble, and begged to be allowed to stay here for to-night at any rate. And he is in trouble, evidently."
"Where is he?"
"With Althea. They both asked me to send you up to them the moment you came in."
A pretty complication in truth. A leader of the Polish Irreconcilables in the house at such a time.
"I'll go to them," I said.
I went upstairs slowly, thinking how on earth to deal with so unwelcome a crisis. For Althea's sake the thing must be faced and her father sheltered somehow. But how?
Althea's voice called to me to enter when I knocked.