"Why, the lady as come here half an hour ago, with her luggage, and said she was going to stay."
"Randell, are you drunk or dreaming? I know of no lady," cried Stanley, amazed.
"Well, you can see for yourself, sir," replied the valet, throwing open the door.
The Secretary stepped in, and confronted—Madame Darcy.
CHAPTER VII
AN IRATE HUSBAND
"Madame Darcy!" he exclaimed, too astonished not to betray in some measure his emotions. Then following the direction of her eyes, and noting the interrogatory glance, which she threw at Randell, he signed to his valet to leave them together.
"To what have I the honour——" he began abruptly, his voice showing some trace of the irritation he was not quite able to suppress. Surely, he thought, Inez De Costa, large as the liberty of her youth might have been, must know that in England, worse still in London, a lady cannot visit a bachelor's apartments alone, without running great danger of having her actions misconstrued.
She, with true feminine intuition, was none the less keen to realise the awkwardness of the situation, and to suffer more acutely because of the inconvenience to which she was putting him.