"Then surely you recognized him in the restaurant?"
"I never met him," I answered. "This marriage was arranged very quickly, as you know, and I was abroad when it took place. I called on Lady Delahaye twice, but I did not meet her husband on either occasion."
Mabane fingered the loose sheets of my manuscript idly.
"Your story, Arnold," he said, "is having a tragic birth. Will Delahaye really die, do you think?"
"The doctors are not very hopeful," I told him. "The wound itself is not mortal, but the shock seems to have affected him seriously. He is not a young man, and he has lived hard all his days."
"If he dies," Mabane said thoughtfully, "your friend Grooten, I think you said he called himself, will have to disappear altogether. In that case I suppose we—shall be compelled to send the child back to the convent?"
"Unless——"
"Unless what?"
"Unless we provide for her ourselves," I answered boldly.
Mabane smoked furiously for a few moments. His hands were thrust deep down in his trousers pockets. He looked fixedly out of the window.