“You believe the sweet was drugged?” I asked.
She nodded. “There was something very strange in it. It was a night or two after I had tasted it that I had what just now I called my awakening, and began to think about Africa.”
“Have you ever seen these men again, Miss Holmes?”
“No, never.”
At this moment I heard Lady Longden say, in a severe voice:
“My dear Luna, I am sorry to interrupt your absorbing conversation, but we are all waiting for you.”
So they were, for to my horror I saw that everyone was standing up except ourselves.
Miss Holmes departed in a hurry, while Scroope whispered in my ear with a snigger:
“I say, Allan, if you carry on like that with his young lady, his lordship will be growing jealous of you.”
“Don’t be a fool,” I said sharply. But there was something in his remark, for as Lord Ragnall passed on his way to the other end of the table, he said in a low voice and with rather a forced smile: