"All right!" In face of Bernard's thoughtful and practical good humour Val's suspicions had faded. "Shall I come back or will you send the car up for me?" Neither he nor Clowes saw anything unusual in these demands on his time and energy: it was understood that the duties of the agency comprised doing anything Bernard wanted done at any hour of day or night.
"I'll send her up. Stop a bit." Clowes knit his brows and looked down, evidently deep in thought. "Yes, that's the ticket. You take Isabel home and send Lawrence and Laura on alone. Drop them at the lodge before you drive her up. She'll be tired out and it's a good step up the hill. And you must apologize for me to your father for giving him so much anxiety. Lawrence must have been abominably careless to let them lose their train: they ought to have had half an hour to spare."
"He is casual."
"Oh very: thinks of nothing but himself. Pity you and he can't strike a balance! Good-bye. Mind you take your sister straight home and apologize to your father for Hyde's antics. Say I'm sorry, very sorry to mix her up in such a pickle, and I wouldn't have let her in for it if it could have been avoided. Touch the bell for me before you go, will you? I want Barry."
Val let himself out by the window and the impassive valet entered. But it was some time before Bernard spoke to him.
"Is that you, Barry? I didn't hear you come in."
"Now what's in the wind?" speculated Barry behind his professional mask. "Up all night and civil in the morning? Oh no, I don't think."
"Shall I wheel you to your room, sir?"
"Not yet," said Clowes. He waited to collect his strength. "Shut all those windows." Barry obeyed. "Turn on the electric light . . . .Put up the shutters and fasten them securely . . . . Now I want you to go all over the house and shut and fasten all the other ground floor windows: then come back to me."
"Am I to turn on the electric light everywhere, sir?" Barry asked after a pause.