The man ceased his task. He looked around, a little bewildered.
"Do I understand that you are going out of town tonight, Sir Julien?" he asked.
"I am going on to the continent by the nine o'clock train," was the curt reply.
Richards was a perfectly trained servant, but the situation was too much for him.
"You will excuse me, Sir Julien," he said, "but there is Lord
Cardington's dinner tonight, and the reception afterwards at the
Foreign Office. I have your court clothes ready."
His master laughed shortly.
"I am not attending the dinner or the reception, Richards. You can put those things back again and get me the traveling clothes."
The man seemed a little dazed, but turned automatically towards the wardrobe.
"Shall you require me to accompany you, sir?" he inquired.
"Not at present," Sir Julien replied. "You will have to come on with the rest of my luggage when I have decided what to do."