“Was it so very important that you should know all about the Sans Souci?”
“I would have said so to the Under Secretary.”
There was a pause. Warden deliberately passed the opening given by her words. In broad daylight, and whirling rapidly through a village, it behooved him to be circumspect. Between dinner and nine o’clock he would contrive other opportunities.
“Lady Hilbury must be very nice,” she went on, after a brief silence.
“You will like her immensely when you know her,” he could not help saying, at the same time thanking his stars that he had made no mention of Rosamund Laing.
There was a further pause. Evelyn fancied that her voice was well under control when she asked:
“Have you decided to carry out poor Domenico Garcia’s last request?”
“Before answering, will you tell me what you would do in my place?”
“I would go to Rabat, if it were in my power, and there were no undue risk in the undertaking. I don’t think I would be happy if I had not made the effort. Yet, Rabat is a long way from England. Would you be absent many weeks? Perhaps such a journey would spoil your leave. And then—things may happen in West Africa. You may be needed there.”