"Y—yes.... I'd better go and tell her, hadn't I?"
He flushed heavily, but made no movement to follow Geraldine and Dysart, who had now entered the conservatory and disappeared.
For a full minute, uncomfortably silent, the two men stood side by side; then Duane said in a constrained voice:
"I'll speak to Miss Seagrave, if you'll find her brother and Mrs. Severn"; and walked slowly toward the palm-set rotunda.
When he found them—and he found them easily, for Geraldine's overexcited laughter warned and guided him—Dysart, her fan in his hands, looked up at Duane intensely annoyed, and the young girl tossed away a half-destroyed rose and glanced up, the laughter dying out from lips and eyes.
"Kathleen sent for you," said Duane drily.
"I'll come in a minute, Duane."
"In a moment," repeated Dysart insolently, and turned his back.
The colour surged into Mallett's face; he turned sharply on his heel.
"Wait!" said Geraldine; "Duane—do you hear me?"