“Come, Steve!” she said again, and walked from the room.
Her brother hesitated, glared at Pearson, and then stalked haughtily after her.
Captain Elisha’s bewilderment was supreme. He stared, open-mouthed, after his nephew and niece, and then turned slowly to his friend.
“What on earth, Jim,” he stammered. “What’s it mean?”
Pearson shrugged his shoulders. “I think I know what it means,” he said. “I presume that Miss Warren and her brother have learned of my trouble with their father.”
“Hey? No! you don’t think that’s it.”
“I think there’s no doubt of it.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know how. What I do know is that I should not have come here. I felt it and, if you will remember, I said so. I was a fool. Good night, Captain.”
Hot and furiously angry at his own indecision which had placed him in this humiliating situation, he was striding towards the hall. Captain Elisha seized his arm.