Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/301

Rh when that's all I'm here for? What in thunder is Lord Theign's decision—what was his 'extraordinary order'?"

Lord John, too long detained and his hand now on the door, put off this solicitor as he had already been put off. "Lady Sandgate, you tell him! I rush!"

Mr. Bender saw him vanish, but all to a greater bewilderment. "What the h then (I beg your pardon!) is he talking about, and what 'sentiments' did he report round there that Lord Theign had been expressing?"

His hostess faced it not otherwise than if she had resolved not to recognise the subject of his curiosity—for fear of other recognitions. "They put everything on me, my dear man—but I haven't the least idea."

He looked at her askance. "Then why does the fellow say you have?"

Much at a loss for the moment, she yet found her way. "Because the fellow's so agog that he doesn't know what he says!" In addition to which she was relieved by the reappearance of Gotch, who bore on a salver the object he had been sent for and to which he duly called attention.