This arrangement being, as indeed Pip shrewdly suspected; to prevent the possibility of any intercourse or formation of new plans.
And when they got home he invited them all to come into his smoking-room, a little slit of a place off the dining-room.
Esther took the General upstairs, but the others followed him in silence.
"Sit down, Pip, my boy," he said genially. "Come, Meg, make yourself at home, take a seat in that armchair. Nell and Baby can occupy the lounge."
They all sat down helplessly where he told them, and watched his face anxiously.
He selected a pipe from the row over the mantelpiece, fitted a new mouthpiece to it, and carefully filled it.
"As you are all in possession of my room," he said in an urbane voice, "I can hardly smoke with any comfort here, I am afraid. I will come and talk to you again later on. I am going to have a pipe first in the old loft in the cow paddock. Keep out of mischief till I come back."
He struck a match, lighted his tobacco, and, without a glance at the silent children, left the room, locking the door behind him.
Once more he crossed the paddocks, and once more pushed open the creaking door. The orange peel lay just where he had seen it before, only it was a little drier and more dead-looking. The hair ribbon was in exactly the same knot. The ladder creaked in just the same place, and again threatened to break his neck when he reached the top. The dominoes were there still, the ham-bone and the pillow occupied the same places; the only difference being the former had a black covering of ants now, and a wind had been playing with the pillow, and had carried the feathers in all directions.
He crossed the floor, not softly, but just with his usual measured military-step. Nothing moved. He reached the partition and looked over.