He gave the envelope to the expert, who withdrew the papers it contained and spread them upon the table.
He began to study them with grave attention. The two men sat in the comfortable chairs he had indicated to them.
"My lord," said the expert, looking up suddenly, "I guess you won't realise the necessity of it, but I should very much like to be left alone for say twenty minutes. I can think better when I am alone, and I gather you want an immediate opinion?"
"We do," Lord Ellerdine replied. "All right; we will go, and come back in half an hour or so."
The two gentlemen re-entered the waiting-room.
"Well, my dear," said Lord Ellerdine briskly to the young lady, "we are put out here while Mr. Devereux examines some papers I have brought in; and he tells us that we are to talk to you—what?"
The young lady put down her volume. "Frightfully cold," she said, "isn't it?" And for the next half-hour Lord Ellerdine and Colonel Adams and this very superior young lady conversed with a studied propriety which certainly did not obtain in the drawing-rooms where the two gentlemen were accustomed to visit.
At the end of that time the door opened and the keen-faced American came out.
He was rubbing his hands briskly as though pleased with himself. "Guess I have got something for you, at anyrate," he said, "if you will come in here."
They re-entered the inner room, and Devereux began. "I can tell you one thing," he said, "and one thing only."