I chanced to look in in the hope of finding you up, and so was able to rid you of him. I came to leave a message for Alec in case he calls presently.”
“But Alec is the pink of propriety,” exclaimed Sibyl, laughing in spite of herself. “He doesn’t call on an unprotected damsel, even if he is engaged to her, at eleven o’clock at night.”
“Nevertheless, I believe that he will call here very shortly; and I should like him to be told that I am all right, and, in fact, that I am going out of town for a few days to the seaside. I will communicate with him when I want him to enter on his secretarial duties. That is all, I think. I must really be off now.”
But Sybil would not at once take his proffered hand. She remembered that he had mentioned that he was to spend the night at Alec’s chambers, and this sudden derangement of plans, coupled with the lurking suggestion in his message, was, to say the least of it, mysterious. Looking into the tired eyes, she found again that expression of sleepless worry that had puzzled her. Why should it be necessary for this young man, newly come to great wealth and station, to notify his friend so
[95]
