Mark Pryor took up the instrument.
"Yes," he said. "It's Mr. Pryor speaking. A young woman? Indeed! Well, I'll see her up here."
He hung up the receiver.
"A young and beautiful woman," he repeated with a singularly straight face.
Young Smilo, whose way of life was still in the green, the callow leaf, was divided between admiration and bewilderment. In half a minute or so there was a knock at the door.
The young woman who came in was Janet Barr.
II
Smilo's parting look was one of stupefaction at the reception the visitor got, Pryor's enthusiasm being a startling abandonment of his neutral, self-contained manner.
Left to themselves, Janet informed Pryor of the troubles that had brought her to see him. The chief of these was Hutchins Burley.
Would Mr. Pryor advise her how to deal with him if he turned up again, as seemed highly probable?