“Will you tell me my duties, Mrs. Vaisey,” Sidney sought to know in the face of her perturbation.

“The simplest,” she attempted to rally now, and smiled. “The main thing is merely that you be near him. I had no idea that you had been friends!” She stopped and a frown passed briefly over her face. “But that’s all to the good. . . . I don’t suppose likewise I should be surprised you both know the renderer. (I wish he would not use that expression with reference to him!)

“Your only duties,” she went on now in a manner more like the composed and slightly regal one with which she had first greeted him, “well, just to sit with him, by the hour if necessary and speak about anything you think would interest him, or, better, anything which would interest you. . . . And try to change the subject when he mentions anybody or anything which agitates him . . .”

“Mrs. Vaisey,” he began in a voice that had almost a hint of a wail, “you do understand that I have been in prison.”

“I do, I do,” she replied. “But if you think that I believe you are . . . like any . . . prisoner” (she winced after having chosen this word), “you are mistaken. I am a great reader of character. I liked you the moment you came in, and you have in me a friend. Dr. Ulric is made of ice water and steel, Mr. De Lakes. . . . But you will find in me a friend who stands firm in time of trial. . . .”

He could think of nothing to say to this, and then they heard her car in the driveway, and the chauffeur honked the horn in rapid resounding summons that recalled a bugle.

She indicated he must take the limousine and was not to walk home under any circumstances.

“I’ll expect you then tomorrow for sure!” She took his hand through the open window of the car. “And, oh please,” she went on while giving the driver a sign he was to shut off the motor while she spoke. “It would make things easier if we called one another by our Christian names.”

“Our Christian names, yes, ma’am,” he spoke huskily and extricated his hand from hers.

“Again what a stroke of fortune you already have been friends with Gareth! That was quite unexpected . . .”

“It’s good all around . . .”

She smiled and touched his sleeve with her hand.

“It will be something at last to look forward to for him and me.” She gave her final goodbye and nodded to the driver to start the motor.

She stood in the middle of the road waving to him as the car drove away in thick clouds of white, ascending dust.