Leicester met the stare, but his jaw and throat worked as though he were choking. I thought he was trying to answer. If so, the words refused to come.
Someone knocked at the door.
Mr. Rogers stepped to it quickly. "That you, Jim?"
"Yessir."
"Is Miss Brooks with you?" He held the door a very little ajar—not wide enough to give sight of us behind him.
"Yessir. A gentleman, too, sir: leastways he talks like one, though dressed like a private soldier. He won't give his name." Jim's tone was an aggrieved one.
"Thank you: that's quite right. You may go home to bed, if you wish: but be ready for a call. I may want you later on."
"Be this all you want of me?" Jim was evidently disappointed.
"I fear so."
"P'rhaps you don't know it, sir, but Hodgson's gone. There was nobody at the gate when we came by."