Chapter XXII
It was Steptoe who discovered that the little back spare room was empty, though William had informed him that he thought it strange that madam didn’t appear for breakfast. Steptoe knew then that what he had expected had come to pass, and if earlier than he had looked for it, perhaps it was just as well. Having tapped at madam’s door and received no answer he ventured within. Everything there confirming his belief, he went to inform Mr. Rash.
As Mr. Rash was shaving in the bathroom Steptoe plodded round the bedroom, picking up scattered articles of clothing, putting outside the door the shoes which had been taken off on the previous night, digging another pair of shoes from the shoe-cupboard, and otherwise busying himself as usual. Even when Mr. Rash had re-entered the bedroom the valet made no immediate reference to what had happened in the house. He approached the subject indirectly by saying, as he laid out an old velvet house-jacket on the bed:
“I suppose if Mr. Rash ain’t goin’ out for ’is breakfast ’e’ll put this on for ’ome.”
Mr. Rash, who was buttoning his collar before the mirror said over his shoulder: “But I am going out for my breakfast. Why shouldn’t I? I always do.”
Steptoe carried the house-jacket back to the closet.
“I thought as Mr. Rash only did that so as madam could ’ave the dinin’ room to ’erself, private like.”
As a way of expressing the fact that Allerton had never eaten a meal with Letty the choice of words was neat.