"Yes, my lord?" The man stepped forward, so as to face his master.
"Is anything the matter?" asked Cyril, scrutinising the other attentively.
The abrupt question seemed neither to surprise nor to discompose the butler; yet he hesitated before finally answering:
"I—I don't quite know, my lord."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Cyril impatiently. "You must know whether or not something has happened to upset you."
Douglas fidgeted uneasily.
"Well, my lord—it's this way, my lord—Susan, the upper 'ousemaid, says as how there has been somebody or—" here his voice sank to a whisper and he cast an apprehensive glance over his shoulder—"or something in the library last night!"
Cyril put down the glass of wine he was carrying to his lips untasted.
"She thinks she saw a ghost in the library?"
"No, my lord. She didn't see anything, but this morning she found finger-marks on the top of his Lordship's desk."