"I am at your service, Monsieur. Shall we be private?"
"It will doubtless be better so."
Polignac shut the door, and offered Mr. Berkeley a seat.
"Thank you, I will stand; I need not detain you long."
"As you please, Monsieur."
"You have heard, Monsieur, of the plight into which our friend Captain Aglionby has fallen?—I say our friend."
"I will not dispute the phrase, Monsieur. I had heard, as you surmise."
"Pardon me—as he is our friend—am I right in assuming that the news may have some little connection with your purposed journey?"
"Since, as you say, he is our friend, I do not deny it, Monsieur."
"So that it will be, let us say, not disagreeable to you if some means of—of cheating the hangman—I am a plain blunt man, Monsieur—should be discovered?"