“Now, who told you that, Doctor Johnson?” she exclaimed, still laughing, and her friends laughed too. “All night I have tried to retain my incognita, but people one after another have penetrated it. Sit down and have some champagne, won’t you?” and she pushed a chair towards him. He saw at once that she herself had drunk as much champagne as was good for her.
“Thank you very much,” he said, “but I won’t, if you will excuse me. I would sooner have said in private, Mrs. Robertson, what I have to tell you, but as you have insisted on my coming in I must tell it to you here. One of your guests to-night was, I believe, a Mr. Schomberg?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Why, what has become of him?” she added, looking round. “We have not seen him for quite a long time. Mr. Johnson you might introduce your friends,” as Preston and Blenkiron still stood in the background.
“I will in a moment. But first I have some rather dreadful news to break to you, Mrs. Robertson. You must brace yourself for a shock. Mr. Schomberg has died suddenly. He died here, in this box, less than an hour ago.”
At once everybody grew solemn. The party became hushed.
“Levi—dead!” Jessica gasped after a pause. “It is impossible. He was here only just now, and quite well!”
“An hour ago,” Johnson corrected. “I was sent for, and I found Mr. Schomberg lying on the sofa in the secretary’s office, dead.”
“But where did he die? And who found him?”
“As I say, he died in this box, where he was found by these two gentlemen, whom I think you know,” and he turned to the masked figures at his elbow, “Mr. Blenkiron and Captain Preston.”
As his name was mentioned, it struck Preston that Jessica gave a little start. He told Blenkiron afterwards, however, that he could have sworn she did.