It was not until Perrison joined her in the conservatory after dinner that she found herself called on to play the part set her by her brother.
She had gone there—though nothing would have induced her to admit the fact—in the hope that someone else would follow: the man with the lazy blue eyes and the eyeglass. And then instead of him had come Perrison, with a shade too much deference in his manner, and a shade too little control of the smirk on his face. With a sudden sick feeling she realised at that moment exactly where she stood. Under a debt of obligation to this man—under the necessity of a tête-à-tête with him, one, moreover, when, if she was to help Bill, she must endeavour to be extra nice.
For a while the conversation was commonplace, while she feverishly longed for someone to come in and relieve the tension. But Bridge was in progress, and there was Snooker in the billiard-room, and at length she resigned herself to the inevitable. Presumably she would have to thank him for his kindness to Bill; after all he undoubtedly had been very good to her brother.
“Bill has told me, Mr. Perrison, how kind you’ve been in the way you’ve helped him in this—this unfortunate affair.” She plunged valiantly, and gave a sigh of relief as she cleared the first fence.
Perrison waved a deprecating hand. “Don’t mention it, Miss Daventry, don’t mention it. But—er—of course, something will have to be done, and—well, there’s no good mincing matters—done very soon.”
The girl’s face grew a little white, but her voice was quite steady.
“But he told me that you had arranged things with these people. Please smoke, if you want to.”
Perrison bowed his thanks and carefully selected a cigarette. The moment for which he had been playing had now arrived, in circumstances even more favourable than he had dared to hope.
“Up to a point that is quite true,” he remarked, quietly. “Messrs. Smith and Co. have many ramifications of business—money-lending being only one of the irons they have in the fire. And because I have had many dealings with the firm professionally—over the sale of precious stones, I may say, which is my own particular line of work—they were disposed to take a lenient view about the question of the loan. Not press for payment, and perhaps—though I can’t promise this—even be content with a little less interest. But—er—Miss Daventry, it’s the other thing where the trouble is going to occur.”
The girl stared at him with dilated eyes. “What other thing, Mr. Perrison?”