'I thought you would be before long,' Logotheti answered coolly, but suddenly speaking French. 'One of the most delightful things in life is to have one's curiosity roused and then satisfied by very slow degrees!'
'Not too slow, please. The interest might not last to the end.'
'Oh yes, it will, for Mr. Feist plays a part in your life.'
'About as distant as Voltaire's Chinese Mandarin, I fancy,' Margaret suggested.
'Nearer than that, though I did not guess it when I went to see him. In the first place, it was owing to you that I went to see him the first time.'
'Nonsense!'
'Not at all. Everything that happens to me is connected with you in some way. I came to see you late in the afternoon, on one of your off-days not long ago, hoping that you would ask me to dine, but you were across the river at Lord Creedmore's. I met old Griggs at your door, and as we walked away he told me that Mr. Feist had fallen down in a fit at a club, the night before, and had been sent home in a cab to the Carlton. As I had nothing to do, worth doing, I went to see him. If you had been at home, I should never have gone. That is what I mean when I say that you were the cause of my going to see him.'
'In the same way, if you had been killed by a motor-car as you went away from my door, I should have been the cause of your death!'
'You will be in any case,' laughed Logotheti, 'but that's a detail! I found Mr. Feist in a very bad way.'
'What was the matter with him?' asked Margaret.