"After my persuading the chief it was better to let you do the job unconsciously, then you go and"—with a gulp of bitterness Singleton swallowed his too unflattering opinion of what, precisely, Miss Ellis had gone and done. Only one count in the long indictment slipped out: "To forget even to press the question of the friend in the War Office when Schwarzenberg had broached it herself—to let slip a chance like that!"
"How do you know I let it slip?" came from the dark corner.
"Well, didn't you?"
"I haven't told you so." There was a moment's silence. "How did you know?" the girl repeated.
"Well, how do you suppose I know?"
No word out of her for the rest of that awful drive till she saw they had reached Berkeley Street.
He apologized for not going to Whitehall. Too late. Everything shut up.
"I'll go and see the chief to-morrow and let you hear," he declared.
He scribbled a note that evening, reporting to headquarters: