"
"You might be more fortunate."
"Only tell me how!"
"If you cared to ask me to dine with you to-morrow--I mean, to-night--"
"You would--?"
He was distressed by consciousness that his voice had thrilled impetuously.
But perhaps she had not noticed; there was no change in the even
friendliness of her tone.
"I'm as inquisitive as any woman that ever lived. Even if I wished to, I'm
afraid I shouldn't be able to resist an invitation to hear your Odyssey."
"Delmonico's at eight?"
"Thank you," she said primly.
"You make me too happy. May I call for you?"
"Please." She offered a hand whose touch he found cool, steady, and
impersonal. "Good morning, Mr. Ember."
He stood in a stare while she went quickly through the lobby to a waiting
elevator, then roused and went back to his cab.
It was by daylight that he reentered his rooms and found them tenanted by
a negro boy bound and gagged, bruised and sore, and scared beyond
intelligible expression.
Freeing him and salving his injuries bodily and spiritual with a liberal
douceur, Lanyard exacted an oath of silence, then turned him out.
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