CHAPTER XI.
THRESK INTERVENES Thresk reached his hotel with some words ringing in his head which Jane Repton had spoken to him at Mrs.Carruthers' dinner-party: "You can get any single thing in life you want if you want it enough, but you cannot control the price you will have to pay for it.

That you will only learn afterwards and gradually." He had got what he had wanted--the career of distinction, and he wondered whether he was to begin now to learn its price.
He mounted to his sitting-room on the second floor, avoiding the lounge and the lift and using a small side staircase instead of the great central one.

He had passed no one on the way.

In his room he looked upon the mantelshelf and on the table.

No visitor had called on him that day; no letter awaited him.