“Surely it’s too soon for an emissary from Swinton? Come in!”
The door opening at the summons, discovered the night-porter of the hotel.
“Well! what want you, my man?”
“A gentleman wants you, sir.”
“Show him up!”
“He told me, sir, to give you his apologies for disturbing you at so early an hour. It’s because his business is very important.”
“Bosh! Why need he have said that?” Dick Swinton’s friend must be a more delicate gentleman than himself!
The last speech was in soliloquy, and not to the porter.
“He said, sir,” continued the latter, “that having come by the boat—”
“By the boat?”