." He glanced round the table, jumped up and with a word of excuse left the studio by a small door in a corner.

This startled me into the consciousness that I had been as if I had not existed for these two men.
With his elbows propped on the table Mills had his hands in front of his face clasping the pipe from which he extracted now and then a puff of smoke, staring stolidly across the room.
I was moved to ask in a whisper: "Do you know him well ?" "I don't know what he is driving at," he answered drily.

"But as to his mother she is not as volatile as all that.

I suspect it was business.
It may have been a deep plot to get a picture out of Allegre for somebody.

My cousin as likely as not.