In less than three-quarters of an hour, I was back in the club. I found my cousin almost alone in the smoking-room. He looked up with ill-suppressed eagerness as I entered.
"Well?"
I lit a cigarette and threw myself into an easy-chair.
"Quiet afternoon here?" I remarked.
"You saw Lord Polloch?"
I nodded.
"I was with him exactly twenty-five minutes," I answered.
"Well?" he repeated.
I called a waiter and ordered something to drink. I felt that I needed it.
"My dear Gilbert," I said, "I will not affect to misunderstand you! You want to know how Lord Polloch received me, what the nature of my business with him was, and its final result. That is so, isn't it?"