“Then you’ll have to have something. Mr. Armitage has business which
won’t permit of an instant’s delay.”
And I bore that young man right past him. I dare say they both of them
thought I was mad. I was conscious that Mr. Clarke was looking after
us as if he would like to bite me, but did not dare; he did not even
dare to try to speak to Mr. Armitage again. I believe Mr. Armitage did
ask some questions, but he got no answers; I took him at such a pace
to my hotel that he had not time to ask many. I had arranged with Mrs.
Curtis that she should carry off the girl to her private sitting-room.
As I opened the door, with the young gentleman in tow, she came out,
and she slipped into my hand what I knew to be a wad of notes. Then I
showed Mr. Armitage into the room, and when he saw the girl and the
girl saw him their faces were a study.
Off I went, without any preamble, as hard as I could to the point.
“I have no time to waste in explanations--at least, not now; I merely
want you to understand that owing to circumstances over which I have
practically no control I know all about you--and that’s all. I
believe, Mr. Armitage, that you have some regard for this young lady,
whose name I don’t happen to know, except that it’s Margery. Is it
correct that you have a regard for her?”
The bewildered look with which that young man regarded me, as if he
wondered if something had happened to the foundations of the world!
“I have only the pleasure of knowing you very slightly, Miss Lee; I’m
afraid I don’t understand----”