"
When Lillian wanted anything she could be very sweet. She
suddenly dropped her half-petulant tone; she suddenly ceased
to be a spoiled child. With a perfectly graceful movement she
drew quite close to Loder and slid gently to her knees.
This is an attitude that few women can safely assume; it
requires all the attributes of youth, suppleness, and a
certain buoyant ease. But Lillian never acted without
justification, and as she leaned towards Loder her face
lifted, her slight figure and pale hair softened by the
firelight, she made a picture that it would have been
difficult to criticise.
But the person who should have appreciated it stared steadily
beyond it to the fire. His mind was absorbed by one question
--the question of how he might reasonably leave the house
before discovery became assured.
Lillian, attentively watchful of him, saw the uneasy look, and
her own face fell. But, as she looked, an inspiration came to
her--a remembrance of many interviews with Chilcote smoothed
and facilitated by the timely use of tobacco.
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