On the table a few feet away was a telephone, the receiver of which he
had just laid down.
"Well," he asked, looking up as she entered, "have they made a move
yet?"
"I met Mr. Weiss on Fifth Avenue," she said. "He explained that you were
all partners in some business undertaking of very great importance. Then
he went on to say that they could carry it on all right without you, but
that they must have one paper, which he said was the key to the
position. He remarked that he had telephoned to you last night about it,
and he is quite sure that you will give me orders to find it and give it
up to him. He persuaded me even, you see, to break the doctor's orders."
Phineas Duge smiled quietly.
"I am too ill to be disturbed about such things," he said, lighting a
fresh cigarette. "I do not know what paper he means. If you come and
talk to me again about business matters, I shall send for the doctor. It
is most unreasonable. By the by, where did you leave Mr. Weiss?"
"In the morning-room," she answered. "He wanted to go into the library,
and he wanted to see Smedley, but I told him to wait where he was till I
got down."
"I hope you will find him there," Phineas Duge said.
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