Lord Peter bowed to his neighbour, and walked across the waiting-room. As the door of the consulting-room closed behind him, he remembered having once gone, disguised, into the staff-room of a German officer. He experienced the same feeling — the feeling of being caught in a trap, and a mingling of bravado and shame.
He had seen Sir Julian Freke several times from a distance, but never close. Now, while carefully and quite truthfully detailing the circumstances of his recent nervous attack, he considered the man before him. A man taller than himself, with immense breadth of shoulder, and wonderful hands. A face beautiful, impassioned and inhuman; fanatical, compelling eyes, bright blue amid the ruddy bush of hair and beard. They were not the cool and kindly eyes of the family doctor, they were the brooding eyes of the inspired scientist, and they searched one through.
«Well,» thought Lord Peter, «I shan't have to be explicit, anyhow.»
«Yes,» said Sir Julian, «yes. You had been working too hard. Puzzling your mind. Yes. More than that, perhaps — troubling your mind, shall we say?»
«I found myself faced with a very alarming contingency.»
«Yes. Unexpectedly, perhaps.»
«Very unexpected indeed.»
«Yes. Following on a period of mental and physical strain.»
«Well — perhaps. Nothing out of the way.»
«Yes. The unexpected contingency was — personal to yourself?»