It was horrible.
'Speak,' she said hoarsely, and Miss Spencer's face went whiter.
'Tom did say,' the woman whispered rapidly, awesomely, 'that if Prince Eugen got to London it would upset his scheme.' 'What scheme?
What scheme?
Answer me.' 'Heaven help me, I don't know.' Miss Spencer sank into a chair.

'He said Mr Dimmock had turned tail, and he should have to settle him and then Rocco--' 'Rocco! What about Rocco ?' Nella could scarcely hear herself.

Her grip of the revolver tightened.
Miss Spencer's eyes opened wider; she gazed at Nella with a glassy stare.
'Don't ask me.

It's death!' Her eyes were fixed as if in horror.
'It is,' said Nella, and the sound of her voice seemed to her to issue from the lips of some third person.
'It's death,' repeated Miss Spencer, and gradually her head and shoulders sank back, and hung loosely over the chair.

Nella was conscious of a sudden revulsion.