tick. Then I
heard him talking to this mysterious girl. At least I heard her voice
first. 'Oh, I can't! I can't!'

"Then Sabre: 'Nonsense, Effie. You must. You must. I insist. Don't be
silly.'

"Then a door slammed.

"Well, I ask you! If I didn't say to myself, 'The plot thickens,' if I
didn't say it, I can promise you I thought it. I did. And it proceeded
to curdle. The door that had slammed opened and presently in comes Sabre
with the girl. And the girl with the baby in her arms. Sabre said in his
ordinary, easy voice--he's got a particularly nice voice, has old
Sabre--'This is a very retiring young person, Hapgood. Had to be dragged
in. Miss Bright. Her father's in the office. Perhaps you've met him,
have you?'

"Well, I don't know what I said, old man. I know what I thought. I
thought just precisely what you're thinking. Yes, I had a furiously
vivid shot of a recollection of old Bright as I'd seen him a couple of
hours before, of his blazing look, of his gesture of wanting to hurl the
Tables of Stone at me, and of his extraordinary remark about Sabre,--I
had that and I did what you're doing: I put two and two together and
found the obvious answer (same as you) and I jolly near fell down dead,
I did. Jolly near.

"But Sabre was going on, pleasant and natural as you please. 'Miss
Bright was here as companion to my wife while I was in France. Now she's
staying here a bit. Put the baby on the sofa, Effie, and let's get to
work. I'd like you two to be friends. Hapgood and I were at school
together, you know, about a thousand years ago. They used to call him
Porker because he was so thin.'

"The girl smiled faintly, I put up an hysterical sort of squeak, and we
sat down. The meal wasn't precisely a banquet. We helped ourselves and
stacked up the soiled plates as we used them. No servants, d'you see?
That was pretty clear by now. No wife, no servants, no wedding ring;
nothing but old Bright's daughter and old Bright's daughter's
baby--and--and--Sabre.

"I suppose I talked. I heard my voice sometimes. The easy flow Sabre had
started with didn't last long. The girl hardly spoke. I watched her a
lot. I liked the look of her. She must have been uncommonly pretty in a
vivacious sort of way before she ran up against her trouble, whatever it
was. I say Whatever it was. I'd no real reason to suppose I knew; though
mind you, I was guessing pretty shrewdly it was lying there on the sofa
wrapped up in what d'you call 'ems--