’The very people I wanted to see!  Why haven’t you been to see me, you wicked woman?  I’m sure your eyes are in a deplorable condition.’

’Do you think I would let a bold, bad man like you stare into them with an ophthalmoscope?’ laughed Susie.

’Now look here, I want you both to do me a great favour.  I’m giving a supper party at the Savoy, and two of my people have suddenly failed me.  The table is ordered for eight, and you must come and take their places.’

‘I’m afraid I must get home,’ said Arthur.  ’I have a deuce of a lot of work to do.’

‘Nonsense,’ answered Arbuthnot.  ’You work much too hard, and a little relaxation will do you good.’  He turned to Susie:  ’I know you like curiosities in human nature; I’m having a man and his wife who will positively thrill you, they’re so queer, and a lovely actress, and an awfully jolly American girl.’

‘I should love to come,’ said Susie, with an appealing look at Arthur, ‘if only to show you how much more amusing I am than lovely actresses.’

Arthur, forcing himself to smile, accepted the invitation.  The specialist patted him cheerily on the back, and they agreed to meet at the Savoy.

‘It’s awfully good of you to come,’ said Susie, as they drove along.  ’Do you know, I’ve never been there in my life, and I’m palpitating with excitement.’

‘What a selfish brute I was to refuse!’ he answered.

When Susie came out of the dressing-room, she found Arthur waiting for her.  She was in the best of spirits.

’Now you must say you like my frock.  I’ve seen six women turn green with envy at the sight of it.  They think I must be French, and they’re sure I’m not respectable.’

‘That is evidently a great compliment,’ he smiled.

At that moment Arbuthnot came up to them in his eager way and seized their arms.

’Come along.  We’re waiting for you.  I’ll just introduce you all round, and then we’ll go in to supper.’

They walked down the steps into the foyer, and he led them to a group of people.  They found themselves face to face with Oliver Haddo and Margaret.

’Mr Arthur Burdon—­Mrs Haddo.  Mr Burdon is a colleague of mine at St Luke’s; and he will cut out your appendix in a shorter time than any man alive.’

Arbuthnot rattled on.  He did not notice that Arthur had grown ghastly pale and that Margaret was blank with consternation.  Haddo, his heavy face wreathed with smiles, stepped forward heartily.  He seemed thoroughly to enjoy the situation.

‘Mr Burdon is an old friend of ours,’ he said.  ’In fact, it was he who introduced me to my wife.  And Miss Boyd and I have discussed Art and the Immortality of the Soul with the gravity due to such topics.’

He held out his hand, and Susie took it.  She had a horror of scenes, and, though this encounter was as unexpected as it was disagreeable, she felt it needful to behave naturally.  She shook hands with Margaret.