He went back to her. He knelt on the floor, and drew into his arms the shaken figure, abandoned among the cushions.
"Don't, don't, my dear—my sweet one!" he implored, awkwardly smoothing the ruffled gold of her hair. "Trust old Jack! I'll do something. I'll find out for you. I don't know how. Goodness knows how! But I'll worm her secret from that Pavoya girl!"
CHAPTER XII
"THE 'WHISPERER' STUFF"
"My goodness gracious!" gasped Natalie Lowndes. "Billy—wake up! Have you seen 'the Whisperer stuff'?"
Billy woke up.
It was just after dinner, early yet to begin the real evening at the Grumblers (known to some outsiders as the "Plunderers") Club; and Lowndes had been killing time with a nap.
"Whisperer stuff?" he repeated, in a dazed, almost startled way; and when Billy looked startled he was not at his best. Some years ago he had been considered handsome: a big, athletic fellow with wavy auburn hair brushed back from a low forehead, reddish bronze skin, and big black eyes like those of his sister, Lady West. But the auburn hair had faded and thinned, growing far back on the forehead, which had now become unnaturally high. He was less athletic that he had been, because his principal exercise was taken indoors these days, and consisted of bridge and poker, poker and bridge, varied by roulette. His splendid muscular development was slowly degenerating into fat; and his large face was all red without the bronze. His eyes, too, had changed, and though still big had a goggling prominence that was not attractive. This was why he did not, when startled, look his best. The eyes goggled—his wife said to herself—like a pollywog's. And aloud she said to him: "Don't pretend not to know what I mean by 'Whisperer' stuff."
"I was asleep," Lowndes excused himself, mildly.
"You don't need to tell me that by word of mouth," Natalie shrugged. "You've been advertising the fact through another organ. Besides, you never can keep awake fifteen minutes after dinner if we're alone together. Not that it matters! ... What I asked was, have you seen 'the Whisperer stuff' in this week's Inner Circle?"