"Yes. And asleep, too!"
"I wonder how the deuce he slipped in. I'll bet anything those servants have been telling a lot of lies for him. He pulls their hair down and simply does what he likes with them."
Edwin was now greatly reassured, but he could not quite recover from the glimpse he had had of George's capacity for leading a double life. Sardonically he speculated whether the heavenly penknife would be brought to his notice by its owner, and if so by what ingenious method.
III
The final sensation was caused by the arrival, in a nearly empty drawing-room, of plump Maggie, nervous, constrained, and somewhat breathless.
"Bert has turned up," she said. "Clara thought I'd better come along and tell you. She felt sure you'd like to know."
"Well, that's all right then," Hilda replied perfunctorily, indicating that Clara's conceited assumption of a universal interest in her dull children was ridiculous.
Edwin asked:
"Did the kid say where he'd been?"
"Been running about the streets. They don't know what's come over him--because, you see, he'd actually gone to bed once. Albert is quite puzzled; but he says he'll have it out of him before he's done."