“What’s the trouble?” the operator cut in. “Didn’t you get your party?”
“Why, yes, I was talking to her—we must have been disconnected.”
“Wait a minute.”
“What is it, do you suppose?” Howard turned anxiously to Hammond.
“You haven’t been disconnected,” Central returned. “They’ve left the receiver off the hook at the other end, and we can’t get a reply.”
“Something’s happened to my mother!” Howard dropped the ’phone to leap for the door. “The shock may have killed her!”
“I’ll go with you, Howard.” Hammond hurried him below to the waiting car. “I don’t believe it’s anything serious. She fainted most likely. Poor little woman!”
All the way home, although the chauffeur exceeded the speed limit at every opportunity, the car, to Howard, seemed actually to crawl.
Marjorie Benton had been picked up by Griggs and the housekeeper, and carefully put to bed. She regained consciousness in time to prevent them from sending for the doctor.
“It’s nothing at all,” she assured them. “I wouldn’t think of having Doctor Morton.”