An hour may have passed in this condition of dull suspense, when he was startled by the tinkle of his desk telephone.  It was with some effort that he leaned forward to answer the call.  Not that he was afraid—­now; he only shrank from the necessity of doing anything.

“Mr. Davenant would like to see you,” came the voice of the stenographer from the anteroom.

There was nothing to reply but, “Ask Mr. Davenant to come in.”  He uttered the words mechanically.  He had not thought of Davenant since he talked with Olivia on the stairs—­a conversation that now seemed a curiously long time ago.

“I hope I’m not disturbing you, Mr. Guion,” the visitor said, apologetically, with a glance at the letters on the desk.

“Not at all, my dear fellow,” Guion said, cordially, from force of habit, offering his hand without rising from the revolving chair.  “Sit down.  Have a cigar.  It’s rather a sharp morning for the time of year.”

The use of the conventional phrases of welcome helped him to emerge somewhat from his state of apathy.  Davenant declined the cigar, but seated himself near the desk, in one of the round-backed office chairs.  Not being a man easily embarrassed by silences, he did not begin to speak at once, and during the minute his hesitation lasted Guion bethought him of Olivia’s remark, “That sort of Saxon-giant type is always good-looking.”  Davenant was good-looking, in a clear-skinned, clear-eyed way.  Everything about him spoke of straight-forwardness and strength, tempered perhaps by the boyish quality inseparable from fair hair, a clean, healthily ruddy complexion, and a direct blue glance that rested on men and things with a kind of pensive wondering.  All the same, the heavy-browed face on a big, tense neck had a frowning, perhaps a lowering expression that reminded Guion of a young bull before he begins to charge.  The lips beneath the fair mustache might be too tightly and too severely compressed, but the smile into which they broke over regular white teeth was the franker and the more engaging because of the unexpected light.  If there was any physical awkwardness about him, it was in the management of his long legs; but that difficulty was overcome by his simplicity.  It was characteristic of Guion to notice, even at such a time as this, that Davenant was carefully and correctly dressed, like a man respectful of social usages.

“I came in to see you, Mr. Guion,” he began, apparently with some hesitation, “about what we were talking of last night.”

Guion pulled himself together.  His handsome eyebrows arched themselves, and he half smiled.

“Last night?  What were we talking of?”

“We weren’t talking of it, exactly.  You only told us.”

“Only told you—­what?” The necessity to do a little fencing brought some of his old powers into play.

“That you wanted to borrow half a million dollars.  I’ve come in to—­to lend you that sum—­if you’ll take it.”