"Yes, yes. It's all right. I told the inspector we knew all about Miss von Schwarzenberg, and could absolutely vouch for her."
"Here she is," said Napier from the window.
In another minute Madge and Bobby were bursting in, followed by the other two. Miss von Schwarzenberg, wearing a new look of subdued triumph. The American, eager, stirred, smiling in Napier's direction, and yet far from seeming as happy as the girl adored by Julian should be.
Madge and Bobby filled the room with their accounts of the queer journey, the long stoppages, the waiting for government trains to pass, and the way the troops seemed to be moving about the country.
"Miss Greta thought it wasn't soldiers," Bobby threw in. "She says, coal for the fleet."
"That was only at first," Madge defended Miss Greta, "before we found out that we were held up for another—a perfectly thrilling reason! But it's a dead secret, isn't it, Miss Greta?"
"The deadest kind," she answered, as she bent her head for Nan to unpin her veil.
"Russians!" said Madge in a loud stage whisper. "They're sending armies of 'em."
"Russians?" Lady McIntyre blinked rapidly and looked at the door in a perturbed way.
"Yes, to fight the—" Bobby turned tactfully to his father. "I'll be bound you know all about it."