“Not too strong,” added Sir John, apparently to himself, under the cover of Mr. Grubb's somewhat scrappy greeting.
Then Lady Cantourne went to the conservatory and left Sir John and Jocelyn at the end of the long room together. There is nothing like a woman's instinct. Jocelyn spoke at once.
“Lady Cantourne,” she said, “kindly asked me to meet you to-day on purpose. I live at Loango; I know your son, Mr. Meredith, and we thought you might like to hear about him and about Loango.”
She knew that with a man like Sir John any indirect approach to the subject would be courting failure. His veiled old eyes suddenly lighted up, and he turned to glance over his shoulder.
“Yes,” he said, with a strange hesitation, “yes—you are kind. Of course I am interested. I wonder,” he went on, with a sudden change of manner, “I wonder how much you know?”
His unsteady hand was resting on her gloved fingers, and he blinked at it as if wondering how it got there.
Jocelyn did not seem to notice.
“I know,” she answered, “that you have had a difference of opinion—but no one else knows. You must not think that Mr. Meredith has spoken of his private affairs to any one else. The circumstances were exceptional, and Mr. Meredith thought that it was due to me to give me an explanation.”
Sir John looked a little puzzled, and Jocelyn went on rather hastily to explain
“My brother and Mr. Meredith were at Eton together. They met somewhere up the Coast, and my brother asked Mr. Meredith to come and stay. It happened that Maurice was away when Mr. Meredith arrived, and I did not know who he was, so he explained.”