It would almost seem that the ingenuous Mary anticipated the call, for she was waiting in the passage to show Captain Huston out. She returned almost at once to the drawing-room, with a view (cloaked beneath a prepared question respecting tea) of satisfying her curiosity regarding the sound which had suggested the moving of a 'pianer.' But there was no sign of disorder; everything was in its place, and Brenda was standing idly near the mantelpiece.
'We will take tea at once, Mary,' said Mrs. Wylie, unloosening her bonnet-strings.
Mary was forced to retire, meditating as she went over the inscrutability and coldness of the ordinary British lady.
'Ah!' sighed Mrs. Wylie, when the door was closed. 'Now tell me, Brenda! What has happened? Did these two men meet here? I am quite in the dark, and have a sort of dazed feeling, as if I had been reading Carlyle at the French plays, and had got them mixed up.'
'Theo came first,' answered Brenda, 'to warn us that Captain Huston had come home in the same steamer as himself, without, however, recognising him. While we were talking, the other came in. He did not see Theo, who was behind the door...'
'I suppose he was tipsy?'
'No; he was quite sober. He looked horrible. His eyes were bloodshot—his lips unsteady...'
Mrs. Wylie stopped the description with a sharp, painful nod of her head. To our shame be it, my brothers, she knew the rest!
'Was he quite clear and coherent?'
'Yes!'