Page:Conflict (1927).pdf/124

 'I hope you're going to be properly chaperoned,' remarked Peggy.

'What sort of a guy is this, anyhow?' inquired the still-staring Bertie.

'I'll hop out and see if we're barking up the wrong tree,' said Hunt.

'No, I will.' Sheilah insisted with the old queer feeling of protection for Felix. She wished she could have managed to come alone.

'It's all right,' she called back from the piazza. Felix's name was written in pencil, beneath Mrs. Sparks's on a card over one of the bells. 'Come back for me in half an hour.'

She pressed the bell. There was a clicking sound at her side. She pushed open the door and stepped into a dim, carpeted hall.

'Come right up,' a voice said from above.

She mounted the stairs. Two flights.

'That's his room.' The voice belonged to a little old lady in glasses at the top of the stairs. 'He's been expecting you since before four. I'll knock.'

Felix was standing by his desk. It was dim in the room, although there were the remains of a yellow sunset stealing into it from across white fields outside. The little old lady had closed the door behind her.