"In the afternoon. I saw her in the afternoon." He looked angrily at Hanbury. The latter thought, "He is under obligation not to say anything of the Welbeck Place event; he, the traitorous wretch, will content himself with referring to it, so that Dora and I may know what he means. The false sneak!" He felt his face burn and blaze.
Other people came in, and Hanbury moved off a little and looked at Leigh and swayed his head slightly, beckoning him away.
Dora turned pale. She knew nothing of what had passed between the two men since she saw them last, and felt faint when she thought of John Hanbury's rage if the little man referred to their earlier meeting. Yet she could not believe he was going to speak of that. Why had John brought him here? She had no need to guess who the goddess was. She herself was the deity meant by him. That was plain enough.
"Mr. Hanbury was with me at the time," said Leigh, disregarding the signal made by the other.
Hanbury fixed his eyes on the mechanist with threatening deliberateness. Dora grew cold and paler and faint. She felt there was certain to be a scene, a most unpleasant scene. Mrs. Ashton saw nothing, understood nothing.
"Had we not better move aside, Mr. Leigh? I am afraid we are blocking the way." He thought: "This beast has saved up his poison till now. He will strike here."
"No, no," said Mrs. Ashton energetically. "I shall hear of nothing better all day than a goddess--it is not to be expected I can hear of anything better. Where did you meet this Pallas-Athena?"
"In Grimsby Street," answered Leigh with a bow to Miss Ashton and a look of malignant triumph at Hanbury.
The latter started and looked round him with as much surprise as if he suddenly found himself unexpectedly in a strange place. This man was too subtle and lithe for him. Who could have expected this wriggle?
Dora glanced up with an expression of relief. The colour came back quickly to her face, and the aspect of alarmed expectancy vanished.