Wouldn't tomorrow do? He will
surely have shut up shop!"
"I have been at pains to ascertain," replied Sir Lucien, "at Mrs.
Irvin's express desire, that the man of mystery is still in session
and will receive her."
Beneath the mask of nonchalance which he wore it might have been
possible to detect excitement repressed with difficulty; and had Gray
been more composed and not obsessed with the idea that Sir Lucien had
deliberately intruded upon his plans for the evening, he could not
have failed to perceive that Mrs. Monte Irvin was feverishly
preoccupied with matters having no relation to dinner and the theatre.
But his private suspicions grew only the more acute.
"Then if the dinner is not off," he said, "may I come along and wait
for you?"
"At Kazmah's?" asked Mrs. Irvin. "Certainly." She turned to Sir
Lucien. "Shall you wait? It isn't much use as I'm dining with
Quentin."
"If I do not intrude," replied the baronet, "I will accompany you as
far as the cave of the oracle, and then bid you good night."
The trio proceeded along old Bond Street. Quentin Gray regarded the
story of Kazmah as a very poor lie devised on the spur of the moment.
If he had been less infatuated, his natural sense of dignity must have
dictated an offer to release Mrs.
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