"If you please, sir--there is a lady to see you."
"A lady!" said Micky blankly; then he laughed. "Rubbish! You're dreaming, man."
Micky stared at him for a moment, then he passed him, and threw open the door of the sitting-room.
It was Esther who rose from a chair by the fire as he entered.
For an instant Micky was unable to believe his own eyes, then he shut the door and took a step forward.
"Oh, I know; I suppose I shouldn't have come; I don't know what June would say if she knew; but--but there wasn't anybody else I could come to, and you said ... you said...." She flushed up nervously. "Oh, you did say you would be a friend to me, didn't you?"
He might have reminded her that she had declined his friendship; he might have reminded her of all the not very kind things which she had said to him, but it was such happiness to see her here in his room that he was in no mood to be critical.
"Do sit down ... there's no hurry, is there?" He wanted to put her at her ease; he did not like to see the nervous agitation in her face; but she shook her head.
"I'm not going to stay, only ... only I...." Her voice changed suddenly. "Oh, Mr. Mellowes, will you tell me how I can get to Paris?"
"Paris!" Micky echoed the word helplessly. "Paris!" he said again. For the moment he stared at her with blank eyes.
"I have a friend there--some one I ... some one I ... oh, it's the man I'm engaged to, and I want to see him--I must see him! I've got the money to get there. I hope you don't think I was going to ask you to lend me that...." she added in distress.
"Miss Shepstone ... I--I...." Micky was horribly upset. "I never thought anything of the sort. And--and even if you were going to ask me, you know quite well that anything I have, anything...."
"Oh, I know, it's very kind of you." Her blue eyes sought his face with a sort of abasement. "I don't think I've ever really realised how kind you've been to me," she said. "But ... but I've been so worried and unhappy ... I--I do hope you'll forgive me if I was rude or unkind."
Micky did not answer; so it had come at last, the explanations which he had always dreaded; he racked his brains in vain to think of a way out of it--to make out the best story he could.