I
think I will go to bed, if you don't mind."
Littleson shrugged his shoulders as the Englishman disappeared.
"Touchy lot, these Britishers," he remarked.
CHAPTER IV
THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR
Conversation had begun to languish between the two men. Vine had
answered all his host's inquiries about old friends and acquaintances on
the other side, inquiries at first eager, then more spasmodic, until at
last they were interspersed with brief periods of silence. And all the
time Vine had said nothing as to the real object of his visit. Obviously
he had come with something to say; almost as obviously he seemed to find
a certain difficulty in approaching the subject. It was his host, after
all, who paved the way.
"Tell me, Vine," he said, knocking the ash from his cigar, and leaning a
little forward in his chair, "what has brought you to London just now.
It was only a fortnight ago that I heard you were up to your neck in
work, and had no hopes of leaving New York before the autumn."
Vine nodded.
"I thought so then," he said quietly. "The fact is, something has
happened which brought me over here with one object, and one object
only--to ask your advice.
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