“Then what has happened?  You both look like thunder-clouds, or wet blankets, or something disagreeable.  It surely can’t be because you’re hungry that you’re cross about a few minutes.”

“Have you seen a newspaper to-day?” asked Uncle Eric.

“A newspaper?  I should think not, indeed; we’ve had too many important things to do to waste time on trifles.  Why, has the Government gone out?”

“Ivor Dundas has got into a mess here,” Uncle Eric answered, looking very much worried—­so much worried that I thought he must care even more about Ivor than I had fancied.

“Of course it’s the most awful rot,” said Lord Bob, “but he’s accused of murder.”

“It’s in the evening papers:  not a word had got into the morning ones,” Uncle Eric went on.  “We’ve only just seen the news since we came here to wait for you; otherwise I should have tried to do something for him.  As it is, of course I must, as a friend of his, stop in Paris and do what I can to help him through.  But that needn’t keep the rest of you from going on to-day as you planned.”

“What an awful thing!” exclaimed Aunt Lil.  “I will stay too, if the girls don’t mind.  Poor fellow!  It may be some comfort to him to feel that he has friends on the spot, standing by him.  I’ve got thousands of engagements—­we all have—­but I shall telegraph to everybody.  What about you, Lord Bob?”

“I’ll stand by, with you, Lady Mountstuart,” said he, his nice though not very clever face more anxious-looking than I had ever seen it, his blue, wide-apart eyes watching me rather wistfully.  “Dundas and I have never been intimate, but he’s a fine chap, and I’ve always admired him.  He’s sure to come out of this all right.”

Poor Lord Robert!  I hadn’t much thought to give him then; but dimly I felt that his anxiety was concerned with me even more than with Ivor, of whom he spoke so kindly, though he had often shown signs of jealousy in past days.

I felt stunned, and almost dazed.  If anyone had spoken to me, I think I should have been dumb, unable to answer; but nobody did speak, or seem to think it strange that I had nothing to say.

“I suppose you won’t try to do anything until after lunch, will you, Mountstuart?” Lord Robert went on to ask.

“No, we must eat, and talk things over,” said Uncle Eric.

We went into the restaurant, I moving as if I were in a dream.  Ivor accused of murder!  What had he done?  What could have happened?

But I was soon to know.  As soon as we were seated at a table, where the lovely, fresh flowers seemed a mockery, Aunt Lil began asking questions.

For some reason, Uncle Eric apparently did not like answering.  It was almost as if he had had some kind of previous knowledge of the affair, of which he didn’t wish to speak.  But, I suppose, it could not have been that.

It was Lord Robert who told us nearly everything; and always I was conscious that he was watching me, wondering if this were a cruel blow for me, asking himself if he were speaking in a tactful way of one who had been his rival.