‘The lady is there still?’
‘Oh, I believe so. I have not myself been inside the cottage. That is not part of my duty.’
‘Is anyone stationed in the cottage?’
The officer smiled and answered, with an apologetic shrug, ‘Would not you ask his Excellency anything you desire to know, my lord?’
‘Well, I daresay you’re right,’ I admitted, and I fixed a long glance on the windows of the cottage.
‘Even to allow anybody to linger about here is contrary to my orders,’ suggested the officer, still civil, still apologetic.
‘Even to look?’
‘His Excellency said to linger.’
‘Is it the same thing?’