“I met Mr. Weiss on Fifth Avenue,” she said.  “He explained that you were all partners in some business undertaking of very great importance.  Then he went on to say that they could carry it on all right without you, but that they must have one paper, which he said was the key to the position.  He remarked that he had telephoned to you last night about it, and he is quite sure that you will give me orders to find it and give it up to him.  He persuaded me even, you see, to break the doctor’s orders.”

Phineas Duge smiled quietly.

“I am too ill to be disturbed about such things,” he said, lighting a fresh cigarette.  “I do not know what paper he means.  If you come and talk to me again about business matters, I shall send for the doctor.  It is most unreasonable.  By the by, where did you leave Mr. Weiss?”

“In the morning-room,” she answered.  “He wanted to go into the library, and he wanted to see Smedley, but I told him to wait where he was till I got down.”

“I hope you will find him there,” Phineas Duge said.  “He can see Smedley if he wants to, on your responsibility of course.  Those boys know nothing.  Come up and tell me how he takes it.”

Virginia went down to the morning-room and found it empty.  She crossed the hall, opened the door of the outer library softly, and passed with swift silent footsteps into the smaller apartment.  Mr. Weiss was standing there before her uncle’s closed desk, regarding it contemplatively.  He looked up quickly as she entered.

“Don’t think I am taking a liberty, Miss Longworth,” he said calmly.  “This place has been a sort of office for us, and your uncle lets us do about as we please here.  I trust you are going to unlock that desk and give me the paper I want.”

Virginia shook her head slowly.

“I am sorry,” she said, “but my uncle will not discuss business matters at all.  He did not seem to remember anything about a paper, and he said that everything must wait until his head is a little clearer.  I am sorry I disturbed him.  I am afraid that the doctor will be very angry with me.”

Mr. Weiss’ face, clean-shaven and lined, with his spectacled eyes and thin, indrawn lips, was as expressionless as a face could be, but Virginia heard him draw a quick little breath, and his very attitude seemed to be the attitude of a man confronted with calamity.

“Miss Longworth,” he said slowly, “this is very unfortunate.”

“I am sorry,” she answered.

“Will you sit down?” he said.  “I have something to say to you.”

She shook her head.

“I am afraid that I cannot stay now,” she said.  “I have so many things to do, and so many notes to write.”

His spectacled eyes looked right into hers.

“This,” he said quietly, “is important.  There are times, Miss Longworth, when the junior in command of a great enterprise is faced with a crisis, when he or she is forced to act upon their own responsibility.  The person who is great enough to rise to an occasion like this is the person who wins and deserves success in life.  You follow me, Miss Longworth?”