“No apology is necessary. But I am going out. Perhaps you will be good enough not to detain me longer than is absolutely necessary.”
She stood between the table and the door. Bruce, who had risen at her entrance, was at the other side of the room. Her words, no less than her attitude, showed that she desired the interview to be brief. But the barrister resolved that he would not be repelled so coolly.
Advancing, with a bow and that fascinating smile of his, he said, pulling forward a chair:
“Won’t you be seated?”
The lady looked at him. She saw a man of fine physique and undoubted good breeding. She hesitated. There was no reason to be rude to him, so she sat down.
Claude drew a chair to the other side of the hearthrug, and commenced:
“I have ventured to seek this interview for the purpose of making some inquiries.”
“I thought so. Are you a policeman?” The words were blurted out impetuously, a trifle complainingly, but Bruce gave no sign of the interest they had for him.
“Good gracious, no,” he cried. “Why should you think that?”