'He may be able to throw some light upon the matter of that telegram.' She rang and despatched the waiter for the young man in question, De Stancy almost visibly trembling for the result.

But he opened the town directory which was lying on a table, and affected to be engrossed in the names.
Before Dare was shown in she said to her uncle, 'Perhaps you will speak to him for me ?' Mr.Power, looking up from the paper he was reading, assented to her proposition.

Dare appeared in the doorway, and the waiter retired.

Dare seemed a trifle startled out of his usual coolness, the message having evidently been unexpected, and he came forward somewhat uneasily.
'Mr.Dare, we are anxious to know something of Miss Power's architect; and Captain De Stancy tells us you have seen him lately,' said Mr.Power sonorously over the edge of his newspaper.
Not knowing whether danger menaced or no, or, if it menaced, from what quarter it was to be expected, Dare felt that honesty was as good as anything else for him, and replied boldly that he had seen Mr.Somerset, De Stancy continuing to cream and mantle almost visibly, in anxiety at the situation of the speaker.
'And where did you see him ?' continued Mr.Power.
'In the Casino at Monte Carlo.' 'How long did you see him ?' 'Only for half an hour.

I left him there.' Paula's interest got the better of her reserve, and she cut in upon her uncle: 'Did he seem in any unusual state, or in trouble ?' 'He was rather excited,' said Dare.
'And can you remember when that was ?' Dare considered, looked at his pocket-book, and said that it was on the evening of April the twenty-second.
The answer had a significance for Paula, De Stancy, and Charlotte, to which Abner Power was a stranger.