Then at last he spoke, but only two
words. "Forgive me!" he said, with simple, direct sincerity.
XXII
After his interview with Eve, Loder retired to the study and
spent the remaining hours of the day and the whole span of the
evening in work. At one o'clock, still feeling fresh in mind
and body, he dismissed Greening and passed into Chilcote's
bedroom. The interview with Eve, though widely different from
the one he had anticipated, had left him stimulated and alert.
In the hours that followed it there had been an added anxiety
to put his mind into harness, an added gratification in
finding it answer to the rein.
A pleasant sense of retrospection settled upon him as he
slowly undressed; and a pleasant sense of interest touched him
as, crossing to the dressing-table, he caught sight of
Chilcote's engagement-book--taken with other things from the
suit he had changed at dinner-time and carefully laid aside by
Renwick.
He picked it up and slowly turned the pages. It always held
the suggestion of a lottery--this dipping into another man's
engagements and drawing a prize or a blank.
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