"It's a possible chance of silencing her."
He made his way downstairs, pausing at the door of the library, where
Diana was poring over her letter to Joan.
"I find I must go out again," he said. "But I shall be back in time
for dinner."
Diana looked up in dismay.
"But you've had no tea, Max," she protested.
"Can't stay for it now, dear."
He dropped a light kiss on her hair and was gone, while Diana, flinging
down her pen, exclaimed aloud:--
"It's that woman again! I know it is! She's rung him up!"
And it never dawned upon her that the fact that she had unthinkingly
referred to Adrienne de Gervais as "that woman" marked a turning-point
in her attitude towards her.
Meanwhile Errington hailed a taxi and directed the chauffeur to drive
him to 24 Brutton Square, where he asked to see Miss Lermontof.
He was shown into the big and rather gloomy-looking public
drawing-room, of which none of Mrs. Lawrence's student-boarders made
use except when receiving male visitors, much preferring the cheery
comfort of their own bed-sitting-rooms--for Diana had been the only one
amongst them whose means had permitted the luxury of a separate
sitting-room--and in a few minutes Olga joined him there.
There was a curiously hostile look in her face as she greeted him.
"This is--an unexpected pleasure, Max," she began mockingly. "To what
am I indebted?"
Errington hesitated a moment.
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