II
Lord Stranleigh and Professor Marlow were not the only two who sat up till four o'clock that morning. It was the privilege of the Honourable John Hazel to be the guest of Isador Isaacstein in his gaudy, sumptuous residence in the West End: a house furnished with Oriental splendour. Previous to the conference with Mackeller in the Scientific Society's Club, Isaacstein had seen the Honourable John every day, and often two or three times a day. After Mackeller's curt refusal to act in any way that would please Isaacstein, the latter was plainly more angry than Hazel had ever known him to be before. When Mackeller had taken his departure, the two strolled out of the club; Isaacstein too enraged to trust himself with speech. The Honourable John was scarcely in better temper, for he was deeply disappointed at the outcome, and he thought Mackeller not only ungracious, but ungrateful, because it was through Hazel's instrumentality that he in the first instance met Lord Stranleigh, who put his feet on the road to great financial success, and now, when asked in return to
