‘Sir William Ridsdale’s secretary!’ echoed the colonel with an air of stupefaction.
‘Yes; he recognised you the moment he saw you. He says that he has met you occasionally at Sir William’s house.’
‘Oh, indeed! But what has brought him here, may I ask?’
‘He has come all the way from Spa with a letter for Archie from his father. But when he reached here this morning, he found that Archie had been telegraphed for last evening to meet his father in London.—It seems very strange, doesn’t it? But then, as Mr Etheridge says, Sir William is a very eccentric man.’
‘Very eccentric, indeed,’ responded the colonel absently.
‘So that of course accounts for it.—But yonder comes Mora.’
The colonel turned eagerly. ‘Then, with your permission, I will leave you to Mr Etheridge.’
‘We shall see you at luncheon, of course?’
‘You may rely upon me not to miss that,’ answered the colonel with a laugh.
Clarice kissed her hand to her sister, and then went back to Mr Etheridge. She wanted to afford the colonel an opportunity for a tête-à-tête with Mora, so she at once proposed another ramble to Mr Etheridge, who assented with alacrity.