CHAPTER XI
I DECIDED to have my breakfast very early next morning, and would have thought it a coincidence that Mr. Dane should walk into the couriers' room at the same time if he had n't coolly told me that he had been lying in wait for me to appear.
"I thought, for several reasons, you would be early," he said. "So, for all the same reasons and several more, I thought I 'd be early too. I had to know what the situation was to be."
"The situation?" I repeated blankly.
"Between us. Am I to understand that we 've quarrelled?"
"We had," I said. "But even on good grounds, it 's difficult to keep on quarrelling with a person who has not only brought up your dinner and sauced it with good advice, but saved you from—from the dickens of a scrape."
"I hope she did n't row you any more afterward?"
"No. She was too much interested, all the time I was undressing her, in speculating about Monsieur Charretier to Sir Samuel. It seems that they struck up an acquaintance over their coffee on the strength of a little episode in the hall.
"Inadvertently I introduced them—threw them at each others' heads. Monsieur Charretier—Alphonse,
