he muttered huskily, 'coming here with his black, still carcase--
peeping, peeping--what's he mean, I say?' There was a moment's
silence. Then with lifted brows and wide eyes that to every one
of his three witnesses left an indelible memory of clear and
wolfish light within their glassy pupils, he turned heavily, and
climbed back to his solitude.

'I suppose,' began Danton, with an obvious effort to disentangle
himself from the humiliation of the moment, 'I suppose he was--
wandering?'

'Bless me, yes,' said Mr Bethany cordially--'fever. We all know
what that MEANS.'

'Yes,' said Danton, taking refuge in Mrs Lawford's white and
intent gaze.

'Just think, think, Danton--the awful, incessant strain of such
an ordeal. Think for an instant what such a thing means!'

Danton inserted a plump, white finger between collar and chin.
'Oh yes. But--eh?--needlessly abusive? I never SAID I
disbelieved him.'

'Do you?' said Mrs Lawford's voice.

He poised himself, as if it were, on the monolithic stability of
his legs. 'Eh?' he said.

Mr Bethany sat down at the table. 'I rather feared some such