Page:Biggers and Ritchie - Inside the Lines.djvu/262

 shooting rapidly about the room. Lady Crandall hurried forward to greet him, and his momentary stiffness disappeared. The girl behind her followed slowly, almost reluctantly. Woodhouse grasped her extended hand.

"It was good of you to send the flowers," she murmured. The man smiled appreciation.

"Do you know," he said, "after I sent them I thought you'd consider me a bit—prompt."

"I am learning something every day—about Englishmen," Jane managed to answer, with a ghost of a smile.

"Always something good, I hope," Woodhouse was quick to retort, his eyes eagerly trying to fathom the cause of the girl's restraint.

Lady Crandall, who had been vainly ringing for Jaimihr Khan, excused herself on the necessity of looking after the tea things. Jane experienced a quick stab of dread at finding herself alone with this man. Unexpected opportunity was urging a decision which an hour of solitude in her room had failed to bring. Yet she trembled, appalled and afraid to speak, before the very magnitude of the moment's exigency. "A spy—a spy!" whispered austere duty. "He will die!" her heart cried in protest.