However, as fortune would have it, when I put my ear to M. Dupont's door, I

happened to hear Mr Lewis's voice, and though I cannot recall precisely the

actual words I first heard, it was the tone of his voice that raised my

suspicions. I was listening to the same genial, slow voice with which the

American gentleman had charmed many since his arrival and yet it now contained

something unmistakably covert. It was this realization, along with the fact that

he was in M. Dupont's room, presumably addressing this most crucial personage,

that caused me to stop my hand from knocking, and continue to listen instead.

 

The bedroom doors of Darlington Hall are of a certain thickness and I could by

no means hear complete exchanges; consequently, it is hard for me now to recall

precisely what I overheard, just as, indeed, it was for me later that same

evening when I reported to his lordship on the matter. Nevertheless, this is not

to say I did not gain a fairly clear impression of what was taking place within

the room. In effect, the American gentleman was putting forward the view that M.

Dupont was being manipulated by his lordship and other participants at the

conference; that M.

 

Dupont had been deliberately invited late to enable the others to discuss

important topics in his absence; that even after his arrival, it was to be

observed that his lordship was conducting small private discussions with the

most important delegates without inviting M. Dupont. Then Mr Lewis began to

report certain remarks his lordship and others had made at dinner on that first

evening after his arrival.