"Well, did he invent a new disease for me?" he asked.
"No!" I answered. "On the contrary, he admitted that he was puzzled."
"Honest man! What did he suggest?"
"He asked whether you were in the habit of taking drugs," I answered.
"Never touched such a thing in my life," he declared.
"Neither did I," I remarked grimly, "until last night." And then I told him what had happened to me. He listened eagerly to my story.
"So there is a division in the camp," he murmured softly. "I imagined as much. As usual, it is the woman who plays the whole game."
"I wonder," I said, "whether you would mind telling me what you know of
Miss Van Hoyt?"
He moved on the couch a little uneasily. The request, for some reason or other, seemed to disquiet him. Nevertheless, he answered me.
"Miss Van Hoyt," he said, "is an American young lady of excellent family and great fortune. She has lived for the last few years in Berlin and other European capitals. She has intimate friends, I believe, attached to the court at Berlin. She is a young person of an adventurous turn of mind, and she has, I believe, no particular love for England and English institutions."