It was a grateful relief to the Swiss woman, whose agitated heart was softly beating the refrain: "To-morrow! to-morrow! I shall see him again!" She feared a self-betrayal! While the governess mused upon the extent of her proposed revelations to the handsome Major, that rising social star had adroitly exploited his long tete e tete with Captain Hardwicke to his host, and gracefully magnified the warmth of General Willoughby's personal welcome.
"You see, Johnstone," patiently admitted the man who had dropped into a good thing, "They all want to delve into the secrets of my mission here.
You, of all men," he meaningly said, "cannot blame me for throwing the dust into their eyes.

I detest this intrusion, and so in sheer self-defense I am going to give a formal dinner to a lot of these bores, and then cut the whole lot when I've once done the decent thing." Circling and circling, and yet never daring to approach the subject, old Hugh Johnstone warily returned to the suspended baronetcy affair, at last revealing his secret burning anxieties.

But when Alan Hawke heard the train whistles, announcing the arrival of his beautiful employer, he fled away from the smoking-room in a mock official unrest.
"I am expecting dispatches from England, and also very important detailed secret instructions.

I've had a warning wire from Calcutta." He had broken off the se'ance brusquely with a design of his own, and he rejoiced as Hugh Johnstone brokenly said: "Let me see you very soon again.

I must have a plain talk with you." The old nabob was in a close corner now.