Indeed, it was almost unthinkable that a couple of hours could produce so vast a revolution in a man.

Here was a reporter who had come, without being asked, to interview Sir Chichester Splay, and the baronet would not see him! The incongruity struck Sir Chichester himself.
"Perhaps it will seem rather impolite, eh, Luttrell?
Rather hard treatment on a man who has come so far?
What do you think, Hillyard?
I suppose I ought to see him for a moment--yes." Sir Chichester raised his voice in a sharp cry which contrasted vividly with the deliberative sentences preceding it.

"Harper! Harper!" and Harper reappeared.

"I have been thinking about it, Harper.

The unfortunate man may lose his whole morning if I don't see him.