"My friend," she said, "you are looking ill—more than ever ill…. Isn't there anything I can do? Isn't there something you might tell me?"
Bedient felt her real kindness. "You are good," he answered. "I'm all right, hardly know what it means not to be fit…. And now tell me how you find things."
They stood in the centre of the coffee-room, so no one could listen without being observed. Yet their voices were inaudible five feet away.
"It was clear to me at once," she said, "that I had better not meet you as a friend. They probably knew we both came down on the Hatteras, but that's no reason for our being acquainted."
"And now we must be casual acquaintances—if your work would prosper,"
Bedient said.
"I suppose so."
"The more I think of it, the plainer it becomes that I've sort of disorganized Rey and his intimates. It really is odd for me to be here——"
Miss Mallory searched his face in her keen, swift way.
"When I came to understand at all," she said, "I didn't expect to see you here…. It isn't about the war, is it?"
"No," he replied. Then it occurred to him that she might meet the man he wished to see, and he added: "I have a message for a man named Framtree. Señor Rey apparently thinks this man would not be safe in my hands. At least, I'm not allowed to see him alone——"