“Just so,” agreed Curtis, his manner unruffled. He turned to their silent companion. “Why so fidgety, Hollister? You have snapped your watch cover shut half a dozen times since I have been sitting here.”
Hollister replaced his hunting-case watch in his pocket.
“Mrs. Meredith is late,” he explained. “We have to be at the Metropolis Bank in twenty minutes.”
Armstrong leaned forward, a touch of eagerness in his manner.
“So you are going to open John Meredith’s safe deposit box to-day,” he commented. “I understand the bank officials had called it off until later in the week.”
“I don’t know who your informant could have been,” replied the lawyer dryly, “but it has not been postponed, except as to hour, to oblige Coroner Penfield. Ah, here is Mrs. Meredith,” as the widow appeared in the doorway.
“Don’t let me disturb you, Gerald,” she exclaimed, as Armstrong went with Hollister to the door. “Oh, Doctor Curtis, I did not at first see you,” catching sight of the blind surgeon over Hollister’s shoulder. She turned to the lawyer. “I am sorry to have kept you waiting, Sam; but Anne detained me. How long do you suppose we will be at the bank?”
“About an hour, perhaps two, but not longer than that,” Hollister added, catching her expression of dismay.
“In case we are delayed in returning,” Mrs. Meredith addressed Curtis directly, “I have told Herman to serve luncheon and not to wait for us. In our absence, doctor, I trust that you will act as host.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Meredith,” replied Curtis, bowing deferentially. He could not see the sudden look of aversion which Gerald Armstrong cast in his direction, but he was aware intuitively that Mrs. Meredith’s formal courtesy cloaked the animosity which he fully realized from almost their first meeting was only slumbering, ready to burst forth at any moment. That she had not taken kindly to his inclusion in the house party had been incautiously told him by Lucille Hull; and he judged that only dire necessity had later induced Mrs. Meredith to agree to her brother-in-law’s plan for his marriage to her daughter.