Miss Fabrizi uttered a smothered exclamation.
"You're crazy!" said Blake, angrily.
"Yes? Well, that's my instructions."
"I haven't been inside."
"That don't make any difference; the lady has."
"It's absurd. You can't force—"
"'Sh-h!" breathed Vittoria.
Some one had entered the kitchen at their back. A light flashed through the window, the door opened, and Mr. La Branche, clad in a rusty satin dressing-gown and carpet slippers, stood revealed, a lamp in his hand.
"I thought I heard voices," he said. "What is the trouble?"
"There's no trouble at all, sir," Blake protested, then found himself absurdly embarrassed.