He produced the necessary coin and handed it to her.
"I don't think I'd put it in just yet," he said quietly.
For a moment she paused irresolute; then she dropped the coin in the
slot.
"Is this the Hotel Kington?" she asked. "Will you please try again to get
Mr. Phipps--Harold Phipps? P-h-i-p-p-s."
Quin watched her fingers drumming on the shelf, and he knew he ought to
go out of the booth and close the door; but instead he stayed in and
closed it.
"He doesn't answer?" Eleanor was repeating over the telephone. "Will you
please page the dining-room, and if he is not at breakfast send a
bell-boy up to waken him? It's _very_ important."
Again there was a long wait, during which Eleanor did not so much as turn
her head in Quin's direction. It was only when her answer came that she
looked at him blankly.
"They say he isn't there. The chambermaid was cleaning the room, and said
his bed had not been disturbed."
Then, seeing a humorously unsympathetic look flit across Quin's face, she
burst out angrily:
"What right had you to follow me over here?"
They were standing very close in the narrow glass enclosure, and as he
looked down at the small, trembling figure with her back against the wall
and her eyes full of frightened defiance, he felt uncomfortably like a
hunter who has run down some young wild thing and holds it at bay.
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