‘A very praiseworthy thing to do,’ said Paula. ‘What places has he visited?’
‘Those which afford opportunities for the study of the old masters, I believe,’ said De Stancy blandly. ‘He has also been to Turin, Genoa, Marseilles, and so on.’ The captain spoke the more readily to her questioning in that he divined her words to be dictated, not by any suspicions of his relations with Dare, but by her knowledge of Dare as the draughtsman employed by Somerset.
‘Has he been to Nice?’ she next demanded. ‘Did he go there in company with my architect?’
‘I think not.’
‘Has he seen anything of him? My architect Somerset once employed him. They know each other.’
‘I think he saw Somerset for a short time.’
Paula was silent. ‘Do you know where this young man Dare is at the present moment?’ she asked quickly.
De Stancy said that Dare was staying at the same hotel with themselves, and that he believed he was downstairs.
‘I think I can do no better than send for him,’ said she. ‘He may be able to throw some light upon the matter of that telegram.’
She rang and despatched the waiter for the young man in question, De Stancy almost visibly trembling for the result. But he opened the town directory which was lying on a table, and affected to be engrossed in the names.