“Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll drop in to see you unexpectedly some morning. And don’t let me catch you philandering in your studio with some pretty woman!”
“No fear, Thessa.”
“I’m not at all sure. And your little model, Dulcie, is dangerously attractive.”
“Piffle! She’s a kid!”
“Don’t be too sure of that, either! And tell Mr. Westmore that I may keep my engagement. And then again I may not! Good-night, Garry, dear!”
“Good-night!”
Walking slowly back to extinguish the lights in the studio before retiring to his own room for the night, Barres noticed a piece of paper on the table under the lamp, evidently a fragment from the torn letter.
The words “Ferez Bey” and “Murtagh” caught his eye before he realised that it was not his business to decipher the fragment.