Nevertheless, it was a support to her to remember that Conquest’s manner on the occasions when business brought her to his office was always a little different from that which he assumed when they met outside.  He was much more the professional man with his client, a little the friend, but not at all the lover—­if he was a lover anywhere.  Having welcomed her now with just the right shade of cordiality, he made her sit at a little distance from his desk, while he himself returned to the revolving-chair at which he had been writing when she entered.  After the preliminary greetings, he put on, unconsciously, the questioning air a business man takes at the beginning of an interview which he has been invited to accord.

“I came—­about Evie.”

Now that she was there it was less easy to begin than she had expected.

“Quite so.  I knew there was a hitch.  I’ve just had a mysterious note from Queenie Jarrott which I haven’t been able to make out.  Can’t they hit it off?”

“It’s a good deal more serious than that.  Mr. Strange came to see Mr. Wayne and me last night.  I may as well tell you as simply as I can.  His name isn’t Strange at all.”

“Ho! ho!  What’s up?”

“Did you ever hear the name of—­Norrie Ford?”

“Good Lord, yes!  I can’t quite remember—­Let’s see.  Norrie Ford?  I know the name as well as I know my own.  Wasn’t that the case—­why, yes, it must have been—­wasn’t that the case Wayne was mixed up in six or eight years ago?”

“Yes, it was.”

“The fellow gave ’em all the slip, didn’t he?”

She nodded.

“Hadn’t he been commuted to a life sentence—?”

“Mr. Wayne hoped it would be done, but it hadn’t been done yet.  He was still under sentence of—­death.”

“Yes, yes, yes.  It comes back to me.  We thought Wayne hadn’t displayed much energy or ability of foresight—­or something.  I remember there was talk about it, and in the newspapers there was even a cock-and-bull story that Wayne had connived at his escape.  Well, what has that got to do with Evie?”

“It has everything to do with her.”

Conquest’s little gray-green eyes blinked as if against the blaze of their own light, while his features sharpened to their utmost incisiveness.

“You don’t mean to say—?”

“I do.”

“Well, upon—­my—!” The exclamation trailed off into a silent effort to take in this extraordinary piece of intelligence “Do you mean to say the scamp had the cheek—?  Oh no, it isn’t possible.  Come now!”

“It was exactly as I’m going to tell you, but I don’t think you should call him a scamp.  You see, he’s engaged to Evie—­”

“He’s not engaged to her now?”

“He is.  She means to be true to him.  So do we all.”

Two little scarlet spots burned in her cheeks, but it was not more in the way of emotion than a warm partisanship on Evie’s account demanded.