With that strange sensation of having lived through
the scene before, Loder left the cab and walked up the steps.
Instantly he pressed the bell the door was opened by Lillian's
discreet, deferential man-servant.
"Is Lady Astrupp at home?" he asked.
The man looked thoughtful. "Her ladyship lunched at home,
sir--" he began, cautiously.
But Loder interrupted him. "Ask her to see me," he said,
laconically.
The servant expressed no surprise. His only comment was to
throw the door wide.
"If you'll wait in the white room, sir," he said, "I'll inform
her ladyship." Chilcote was evidently a frequent and a
favored visitor.
In this manner Loder for the second time entered the house so
unfamiliar--and yet so familiar in all that it suggested.
Entering the drawing-room, he had leisure to look about him.
It was a beautiful room, large and lofty; luxury was evident
on every hand, but it was not the luxury that palls or
offends. Each object was graceful, and possessed its own
intrinsic value. The atmosphere was too effeminate to appeal
to him, but he acknowledged the taste and artistic delicacy it
conveyed.
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