'There are three persons asking for Mr. Van Torp, my lady,' he said in a very low tone, and she noticed the disturbed look in his face. 'They've got a motor-car waiting in the avenue.'
'What sort of people are they?' she asked quietly; but she felt that she was pale.
'To tell the truth, my lady,' the butler spoke in a whisper, bending his head, 'I think they are from Scotland Yard.'
Lady Maud knew it already; she had almost guessed it when she had glanced at his face before he spoke at all.
'Show them into the old study,' she said, 'and ask them to wait a moment.'
The butler went away with his two coffee cups, and scarcely any one had noticed that Lady Maud had exchanged a few words with him by the window. She turned back to the piano, where Margaret was still sitting on the stool with her hands in her lap, looking at Logotheti in the distance and wondering whether she meant to marry him or not.
'No bad news, I hope?' asked the singer, looking up as her friend came to her side.
'Not very good,' Lady Maud answered, leaning her elbow on the piano. 'Should you mind singing something to keep the party together while I talk to some tiresome men who are in the old study? On these June evenings people have a way of wandering out into the garden after dinner. I should like to keep every one in the house for a quarter of an hour, and if you will only sing for them they won't stir. Will you?'
Margaret looked at her curiously.
'I think I understand,' Margaret said. 'The people in the study are asking for Mr. Van Torp.'