CHAPTER XLIX.
I WILL GO ALONE.
We all sat down to breakfast together. Lord Langerdale divided his attention between his breakfast and The Times.
“Are you going shopping to-day, Elsie?” he asked, looking up from his paper.
She glanced at him inquiringly.
“I think so. Why?”
“Be very careful about your change, then. There has never been so much bad money about as just now. The papers are full of the most startling rumours. Coining must be going on in London somewhere upon an enormous scale, and the police are—— Why, Philip, what’s the matter with you?”
I recovered myself promptly and set down the cup which I had been within an ace of spilling.
“The coffee was a little hot,” I said slowly. “It was very stupid of me.”
He went on reading and Lady Langerdale began to talk to me. But my attention was wandering. It was a strange idea which had occurred to me, perhaps a ridiculous one. Yet it was possessed of a certain fascination.
In the middle of breakfast a waiter brought me a note. Lady Langerdale’s permission was given unasked and I tore it open. It was from de Cartienne, and the contents, though brief, were to the point: