Page:The Prime Minister by Hall Caine.djvu/107

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE PRIME MINISTER
83

Margaret.
Yes, sir.

Sir Robert.
At 2.20 P.M.?

Margaret.
I suppose that was the time, sir.

Sir Robert.
Did you dispatch it yourself from the telegraph office on the pier or give it to one of the boys on the platform?

Margaret.
I dispatched it myself, sir.

Sir Robert.
Do you remember if there was anybody else in the office at the time?

Margaret.
No, there was nobody else, sir.

Sir Robert.
Then how do you account for it that the telegram sent by the other Freda on the train—the telegram to Margaret Schiller—was handed in at the same moment?

Margaret.
[Hesitating, stammering.] Somebody must have come in immediately after me. . . . And now that I remember, while I was writing the telegram to you another lady did come in——

Sir Robert.
But didn't you say there was nobody else there?