"Don't fancy I am asking you to go fiddle-faddling about my wife again: I don't see how you _can_ do that, after the way she has used you! But I have reasons for wanting to have you within call.

Go to Mrs.Perkin.I won't take a refusal." "I can not do it, Mr.Redmain," said Mary; "the thing is impossible." And she turned to leave the room.
"Stop, stop!" cried Mr.Redmain, and jumped from his chair to prevent her.
He would not have succeeded had not Mewks met her in the doorway full in the face.

She had to draw back to avoid him, and the man, perceiving at once how things were, closed the door the moment he entered, and stood with his back against it.
"He's in the drawing-room, sir," said Mewks.
A scarcely perceptible sign of question was made by the master, and answered in kind by the man.
"Show him here directly," said Mr.Redmain.Then turning to Mary, "Go out that way, Miss Marston, if you will go," he said, and pointed to the dressing-room.
Mary, without a suspicion, obeyed; but, just as she discovered that the door into the bedroom beyond was locked, she heard the door behind her locked also.

She turned, and knocked.
"Stay where you are," said Mr.Redmain, in a low but imperative voice.
"I can not let you out till this gentleman is gone.

You must hear what passes: I want you for a witness." Bewildered and annoyed, Mary stood motionless in the middle of the room, and presently heard a man, whose voice seemed not quite strange to her, greet Mr.Redmain like an old friend.