"Who else is here?" asked Frank abruptly.
The other ran through the three names, with a short biography of each. Frank nodded, reassured at the end.
"That's all right," he said. "All before my time, I expect. They might come in, you know."
"Oh, no!" said the clergyman. "I told them not, and—"
"Well, let's come to business," said Frank. "It's about a girl. You saw that man to-day? You saw his sort, did you? Well, he's a bad hat. And he's got a girl going about with him who isn't his wife. I want to get her home again to her people."
"Yes?"
"Can you do anything? (Don't say you can if you can't, please....) She comes from Chiswick. I'll give you her address before I go. But I don't want it muddled, you know."
The clergyman swallowed in his throat. He had only been ordained eighteen months, and the extreme abruptness and reality of the situation took him a little aback.
"I can try," he said. "And I can put the ladies on to her. But, of course, I can't undertake—"
"Of course. But do you think there's a reasonable chance? If not, I'd better have another try myself."