"If there is any amusement to you in a rather dull drive
eastwards--"
She was on her feet with the soft, graceful speed which had made
her so much admired before her present listlessness had set in.
"I'll get my cloak," she said.
They drove along the Embankment, citywards. The heat of the city
seemed to rise from the pavements. The wall of the Embankment
was lined with people, leaning over to catch the languid breeze
that crept up with the tide. They crossed the river and threaded
their way through a nightmare of squalid streets, where half-dressed
men and women hung from the top windows and were even to be seen
upon the roof, struggling for air. The car at last pulled up at the
corner of a long street.
"I am going down here," Sir Timothy announced. "I shall be gone
perhaps an hour. The neighbourhood is not a fit one for you to
be left alone in. I shall have time to send you home. The car
will be back here for me by the time I require it."
"Where are you going?" she asked curiously. "Why can't I come
with you?"
"I am going where I cannot take you," was the firm reply. "I
told you that before I started."
"I shall sit here and wait for you," she decided. "I rather like
the neighbourhood. There is a gentleman in shirt-sleeves,
leaning over the rail of the roof there, who has his eye on me.
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