Harvey Grimm consulted his watch.
"It is time," he decided, "for number one. It is several days since I tasted a cocktail. After that we might lunch together."
The poet assented with alacrity. They left a note for Aaron and made their way round to the Milan. The bar was rather more crowded than usual and they took their cocktails to a settee in a corner of the room. Harvey Grimm sent for a page and wrote the name of Captain Brinnen on a piece of paper.
"Will you see whether you can find this gentleman in the hotel?" he directed. "He is staying, I believe, in the Court."
The boy departed. Harvey Grimm, who as a rule was a temperate man, drank up his cocktail quickly and sent for another.
"Do you believe in forebodings, Stephen?" he asked.
"I was brought up on them," the poet replied. "There is Irish blood in my veins. I am most superstitious."
"I have had an exciting adventure this morning," Harvey Grimm went on. "So far as any human being can see, I am out of it as I have been before. I have made the most careful arrangements, too—but there, it's well for you not to know too much. There's just this about it. I wish to God I could see that Belgian and get rid of a few baubles."
"Let me have them," his companion begged. "No one would suspect me."
Harvey Grimm shook his head.