"I thought so," said Charlton.
"This is very mysterious—or very absurd," said Jane.
"Please ring off and call your kitchen and tell them to put your breakfast on the dining-room table for you in three-quarters of an hour. Then get up, take your bath and your exercises—dress yourself for the day—and go down and eat your breakfast. How can you hope to amount to anything unless you live by a rational system? And how can you have a rational system unless you begin the day right?"
"DID you see Victor Dorn?" said Jane—furious at his impertinence but restraining herself.
"And after you have breakfasted," continued Charlton, "call me up again, and I'll answer your questions."
With that he hung up his receiver. Jane threw herself angrily back against her pillow. She would lie there for an hour, then call him again. But—if he should ask her whether she had obeyed his orders? True, she might lie to him; but wouldn't that be too petty? She debated with herself for a few minutes, then obeyed him to the letter. As she was coming through the front hall after breakfast, he appeared in the doorway.
"You didn't trust me!" she cried reproachfully.
"Oh, yes," replied he. "But I preferred to talk with you face to face."
"DID you see Mr. Dorn?"
Charlton nodded. "He refused to advise me. He said he had a personal prejudice in your favor that would make his advice worthless."