“I am quite sure of it,” she admitted; “but then it is so like you to arrive just at a crisis! Do you know, I can’t help fancying that there is something theatrical about your comings and goings! You appear—and one looks for a curtain and a tableau. Where could you have dropped from this morning?”
“From Cromer, in a donkey-cart,” he answered smiling. “I got as far as Peterborough last night, and came on here by the first train. There was nothing very melodramatic about that, surely!”
“It does not sound so, certainly. Your playing golf with Lord Wolfenden afterwards was commonplace enough!”
“I found Lord Wolfenden very interesting,” Mr. Sabin said thoughtfully. “He told me a good deal which was important for me to know. I am hoping that to-night he will tell me more.”
“To-night! Is he coming here?”
Mr. Sabin assented calmly.
“Yes. I thought you would be surprised. But then you need not see him, you know. I met him riding upon the sands this afternoon—at rather an awkward moment, by the bye—and asked him to dine with us.”
“He refused, of course?”
“Only the dinner; presumably he doubted our cook, for he asked to be allowed to come down afterwards. He will be here soon.”
“Why did you ask him?”