He referred to the Fraternity with a sort of secretive suggestiveness; but it nevertheless surprised me that the subject should be mentioned so openly.
“I can wait,” I said. “I merely wish to see him privately.”
“Let me carry a message. He may be some time. On such a night as this the meeting must necessarily be lengthy. I am in his confidence, his private secretary, in fact,” he added, when I made no reply. “And of course, in full sympathy with him in all.”
“I didn’t know he had a secretary, but you will probably know my name, Robert Anstruther.”
“Oh, are you Mr. Anstruther? Yes, indeed. I am glad to meet you, if you will allow me to say so. You have probably come to see him about——?” He paused as if inviting me to finish the sentence.
“Well?”
He laughed pleasantly. “You will think it very stupid of me, but in the multiplicity of things which in this crisis in the city have crowded upon me, I have lost the clue. Let me think;” and he put his hand to his forehead as if in perplexity.
He was evidently a very sharp, clever fellow, but it struck me that his sudden forgetfulness was a little overacted.
“I am not surprised you can’t remember it,” I said with a smile intended to be as frank and pleasant as his.
A quick glance from his keen eyes, not intended for me to notice, put me further upon my guard. “That is very good of you. But I take it what you have to say is for the Count’s own ears?”