"Many thanks," she said warmly; "good night."
"No; I am coming in for ten minutes. I want to speak to you. Home, Charles!"
Mona opened the door, and led the way up the dimly lighted staircase to her cheerful sitting-room.
"Now, Mona," he said, as soon as the door was closed, "I want the whole truth of this Borrowness business."
Mona started visibly. Had he met Mr Cookson in the corridor, seized him by the throat, and demanded an account of his actions? No, that was clearly impossible.
"Who has been talking to you?" she said resignedly.
"I met Colonel Lawrence at the club to-day."
Mona threw herself into the rocking-chair with a sigh of capitulation.
"If you have heard his story," she said, "you need not come to me for farther details. He knows more than I do myself. They say down at Borrowness that he is 'as guid as an auld almanac.'"
But Sir Douglas declined to be amused.