Page:The Duke Decides (1904).djvu/216

 had raised an unnecessary bogey in anticipating danger to Sybil Hanbury from Mrs. Talmage Eglinton’s visit.

Yet by the time he reached the top of the terrace steps reaction had set in, and he began to think that his brain could not have lost all its cunning. For, unless in the very improbable event of Mrs. Talmage Eglinton having found out something about the mysterious Ziegler through occupying the next suite to him since yesterday, she must still be the heart and core of the evil influence he had to combat. Without knowledge she would not have been in a position to warn; and, like the Duke, how could she have obtained knowledge without complicity? Why, too, should she also be unwilling to use her knowledge openly? No, he came back to the opinion that there must originally have been one gigantic plot against Senator Sherman’s precious charge, and that there must have been a split in the camp; but from which section, or whether by both sections, the Duke was threatened was an irritating conundrum. Anyhow, Sybil Hanbury’s peril assumed ugly shape again in the General’s mind.

“The woman must have sent it to mislead—