"It shall be no fault of mine if you do not," Ralph replied. "I have planned out my scheme and I am going through with it to the end. There may be troubles and trials to come, but everything is going to end happily for us all. Goodbye."
Ralph held out his hand, but Lady Dashwood drew him down to her chair.
"Give me a kiss, my bonny boy," she whispered. "It may be as well for us to keep up the formality and play the drama till the time comes, but it is no harm to kiss an old woman and let her look into the eyes that she has seen in her dreams for forty weary years. God bless you, Ralph, and prosper your schemes, for nothing you do will be wrong."
Ralph went on his way presently through the shrubbery in the direction of the Hall. A great crowd of people still lingered there, but the police had kept almost intact the trim lawn and the beds of brilliant flowers. Inside the house were a posse of police and a few firemen from Longtown. In the stable yard the scarlet fire engine glittered in the sun. So far as it was possible to see, no great harm had been done.
Nobody was allowed in the house except the firemen and police, an inspector informed Ralph, who had asked for Sir George. None of the structure had been much damaged, none of the furniture had suffered anything except from smoke and water. There was just a suspicion that one of the great beams under the hall floor was still smouldering, and the firemen were going to stay until they were absolutely sure on the point.
"Most extraordinary thing, Darnley," Sir George said. "There seemed to be nothing but smoke. Slight will tell you that there was nothing but smoke. At the present moment an expert in this kind of things is making an examination with a view to discovering the cause of the outbreak. Nuisance to have these people here, but it can't be helped."
"Better these, Sir George, than Mr. Mayfield's friends," Slight croaked. "At any rate, we have got rid of them for the present. If somebody set the house afire on purpose, they could not have done us a better turn, seems to me."
Slight spoke loudly as a man in a kind of uniform came up. He touched his cap to Sir George, and looked fixedly at the old butler. Evidently he had overheard what was said.
"Many things more unlikely than that," he said. "Sir George, I think that I have discovered the origin of the mischief, if you will kindly come this way."
"Of course I was joking," Slight said indignantly. "You don't suppose that I mean to imply that the fire was anything but an accident, Mr. Sayers?"