“Ah,” went on De Talor, looking up and pointing to the case containing the witch’s head, “I see you’ve still got that beastly thing your brother once showed me; I thought it was a clock, and he pretty well frightened me out of my wits. Now I think of it, I’ve never ’ad any luck since I saw that thing.”
At this moment the housekeeper Grice came to say that Mr. Cardus was ready to see Mr. de Talor if he would step into the office. Dorothy thought that their visitor turned paler at this news, and it evidently occupied his mind sufficiently to cause him to hurry from the room without bidding them good-bye.
When Mr. de Talor entered the office he found the lawyer pacing up and down.
“How do you do, Cardus?” he said jauntily.
“How do you do, Mr. de Talor?” was the cold reply.
De Talor walked to the glass door and looked at the glowing mass of blooming orchids.
“Pretty flowers, Cardus, those, very. Orchids, ain’t they? Must have cost you a pot of money.”
“They have not cost me much, Mr. de Talor; I have reared most of them.”
“Then you are lucky; the bill my man gives me for his orchids is something awful.”
“You did not come to speak to me about orchids, Mr. de Talor.”