"I ought to be back inside an hour. I shall come straight back."
She began to ascend the stairs, the man watching her as she went.
"I'll take care that you come straight back. You may have a card up
your sleeve which you mean to play; but I have another, which will
perhaps surprise you."
These words were not spoken aloud; they were said to himself. He looked
as if he meant them, and as if they had a significance--an ominous
significance--which was a little secret of his own.
CHAPTER VII
Among Thieves
She sat very close to him as they went through the streets in the
brougham. She had persuaded him to have still another taste of the
liqueur before they started; the world seemed more dream-like than
ever. When the vehicle drew up, she helped him out into the street. The
air of the misty November morning seemed to add to the fog which was in
his brain. Nothing could have been more gracious or graceful than her
solicitude for his seeming incapacity to take proper care of himself;
no wife could have taken more tender care of a delicate husband. He did
not know what place this was at which they stopped, and she did not
tell him. When presently he found himself seated in an arm-chair, he
had only the vaguest idea of how he had got there, and no knowledge
whatever of the room in which he was. There was a gentleman who
occupied a seat behind a table who he had a dim feeling was observing
him with considerable curiosity. Something was said to him which he did
not catch, possibly because his hearing was unusually dull. The woman
at his side repeated it.
"My dear Jocelyn, this gentleman is asking if you are my husband, if
you are Sir Jocelyn Kingstone."
Sydney said something. He did not know what he said; he never did know;
but it seemed to be regarded as an efficient answer. Shortly something
else was said to him, which the woman again repeated. He had a misty
notion that she was doing a good deal of talking; that notion became
clearer in the days that were to come. She put her hand lightly on his
arm.
"Come, Jocelyn." She led him nearer to the table, placing him on a
chair which was drawn close up to it. "This is what you are to sign.
They have given me the money; here it is."
She held up what, although he did not realise it, was a bundle of
bank-notes.
"Is it all right?"

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