But no. The victim of the accident was apparently as much inclined to reticence as had been the fair cause of it. It was Mrs. Sherman who unconsciously provoked the mendacious statement which stimulated the General's curiosity.
"I'm afraid that your Grace has hurt your hand," said the Senator's wife, pointing to a broad strip of diachylon plaster that ran from the Duke's wrist to the ball of his thumb.
"Yes, I—I grazed it rather badly against the wheel in getting out of a cab," Beaumanoir replied with a momentary loss of his self-possession. The discomposure passed at once, and only the observer on the hearth-rug noticed it. The same shrewd observer presently perceived that the visitor was definitely leading the conversation to the subject of the arrival in England of Senator Sherman; and, more than that, that he was waxing a shade more inquisitive than good-breeding allowed as to the nature of the senatorial journey.
"Ah! he's coming on political business, I think you told me?" the Duke remarked in a half-tone of interrogation on Leonie saying that her father, according to advices received that morning, was to sail in two days' time on the Campania, and would be due at Liverpool early in the following week.
"Well, it's political business in a way," Mrs. Sherman struck in. "My husband is coming over in charge of a large amount of Government securities, which are to be deposited at the Bank of England against a shipment of English gold to the United States."
"He's got the opening he wanted. Now, what on earth is he going to do with it?" said the General to himself as he watched keenly.
"Rather a dangerous mission, I should say," was the Duke's comment on the information imparted to him.
"Dangerous! How can that be?" Leonie exclaimed, wondering. "United States Treasury bonds are not explosive."
"No, but the world is full of sharps, Miss Sherman, and some of them might fancy having a shy for such a haul," said Beaumanoir with a trace more of earnestness than the occasion seemed to require. "If I had a relative starting on such an errand, I should be inclined to cable him to—ah—to look out for himself," he added in direct appeal to Mrs. Sherman.
But the good lady laughed the suggestion to scorn, alleging playfully that "it would be as much as her place was worth" to tackle the Senator that way. It would be a hint that he wasn't able to take care of himself or of his charge, and would be resented accordingly.