Only, how long will it take him to get there? I want him to start right away."
"Well, as I'm sure he'll be deeply interested———"
"We may"—Mr. Bender took it straight up—"get news next week?"
Hugh addressed his reply to Lord Theign; it was already a little too much as if he and the American between them were snatching the case from that possessor's hands. "The day I hear from Pappendick you shall have a full report. And," he conscientiously added, "if I'm proved to have been unfortunately wrong———!"
His lordship easily pointed the moral. "You'll have caused me some inconvenience."
"Of course I shall," the young man unreservedly agreed—"like a wanton meddling ass!" His candour, his freedom had decidedly a note of their own. "But my conviction, after those moments with your picture, was too strong for me not to speak—and, since you allow it, I face the danger and risk the test."
"I allow it of course in the form of business."
This produced in Hugh a certain blankness. "'Business'?"
