r of importance.
I didn't know _where_ you were, sir."

That last phrase was always used by Mrs. Braiding when she wished to
imply that she could guess where G.J. had been. He did not suppose
that she was acquainted with the circumstances of his amour, but he
had a suspicion amounting to conviction that she had conjectured it,
as men of science from certain derangements in their calculations will
conjecture the existence of a star that no telescope has revealed.

"Well, better leave Lady Queenie alone for to-night."

"I promised her ladyship that I would ring her up again in any case in
a quarter of an hour. That was approximately ten minutes ago."

He could not say:

"Be hanged to your promises!"

Reluctantly he went to the telephone himself, and learnt from Lady
Queenie, who always knew everything, that the raiders were expected to
return in about half an hour, and that she and Concepcion desired his
presence at Lechford House. He replied coldly that he was too tired to
come, and was indeed practically in bed. "But you must come. Don't
you understand we want you?" said Lady Queenie autocratically, adding:
"And don't forget that business about the hospitals. We didn't attend
to it this afternoon, you know." He said to himself: "And whose fault
was that?" and went off angrily, wondering what mysterious power of
convention it was that compelled him to respond to the whim of a girl
whom he scarcely even respected.

Chapter 33

THE ROOF

The main door of LECHFORD HOUSE was ajar, and at the sound of G.J.'s
footsteps on the marble of the porch it opened. Robin, the secretary,
stood at the threshold. Evidently she had been set to wait for him.

"The men-servants are all in the cellars," said she perkily.

G.J. retorted with sardonic bitterness:

"And quite right, too. I'm glad someone's got some sense left."

Yet he did not really admire the men-servants for being in the
cellars. Somehow it seemed mean of them not to be ready to take any
risks, however unnecessary.

Robin, hiding her surprise and confusion in a nervous snigger, banged
the heavy door, and led him through the halls and up the staircases.
As she went forward she turned on electric lamps here and there in
advance, turning them off by the alternative switches after she had
passed them, so that in the vast, shadowed, echoing interior the two
appeared to be preceded by light and pursued by a tide of darkness.
She was mincingly feminine, and