"That I cannot imagine. I have been wondering ever since Doctor McMurdoch told me."
"You recognize the person to whom Sir Charles referred?"
"Yes. He could only have meant Ormûz Khan."
"Ormûz Khân
" echoed Harley. "Where have I heard that name?""He visits England periodically, I believe. In fact, he has a house somewhere near London. I met him at Lady Vail's."
"Lady Vail's? His excellency moves, then, in diplomatic circles? Odd that I cannot place him."
"I have a vague idea, Mr. Harley, that he is a financier. I seem to have heard that he had something to do with the Imperial Bank of Iran." She glanced naïvely at Harley. "Is there such a bank?" she asked.
"There is," he replied. "Am I to understand that Ormûz Khân is a Persian?"
"I believe he is a Persian," said Phil Abingdon, rather confusedly. "To be quite frank, I know very little about him."
Paul Harley gazed steadily at the speaker for a moment. "Can you think of any reason why Sir Charles should have worried about this gentleman?" he asked.
The girl lowered her head again. "He paid me a lot of attention," she finally confessed.