“Richard.”
“Um?”
“Don’t leave me alone with Felix Koch, if you can manage it....”
She was prepared for a brotherly outburst: “D’you mean to say the fellow dared——” But Richard laid down his brushes, and took up his collar, with a total absence of all emotion. “Oh, all right.”
CHAPTER II
I
A few days later, Felix Koch came back at an unwonted hour, between dinner and supper, and beckoned his wife to a private conference. Her luminous eyes, as she went, testified to a hope that the mystery enveloped a fur cloak.
Presently Richard was summoned.
“Row about Lothar von Relling,” he explained nonchalantly to Deb afterwards.