"But the ventilator was open!" Joseph reminded him. "An agile man might have got in that way, I believe. Of course, it wouldn't have been easy, but although you may not believe it I used to be a bit of an athlete in my younger days, and I'm pretty sure I could have done it."
"You couldn't do it now, Joe," said Mathilda. "Too much enbonpoint."
"Ah, you love to make fun of your poor old uncle!" he said, shaking his fist at her. "Yet when I was a young man I was as slim as Roydon there. I well remember when I was playing Romeo once - But what am I about, telling stories of my youth when our minds are full of graver matters? Maud, my dear, we will have a thorough search for your book tomorrow, I promise. You have had a wearing day: you should be in bed, you know."
"I daresay I may have left it upstairs," she said, winding up her knitting-wool. "I do not want anyone to worry about it. I expect it will turn up." She rose, said good night in a general way, and departed.
"I shall follow her example," said Mathilda. "Are you coming up, Valerie?"
Valerie replied reluctantly that she supposed she would have to, but that the thought of having a policeman in the house was too ghoulish to permit of her closing her eyes all night.
"I shouldn't worry. I believe policemen are a very moral set," said Mathilda unkindly. "Lock your door, if you're nervous."
"I do think you're the limit!" exclaimed Valerie, giggling.
"I don't suppose any of us will sleep much," remarked Mottisfont, when she had left the room. "I know I shan't. I feel as though I'd had a knock-out. Nat! It still doesn't seem possible!"
"Personally," said Roydon, with ill-assumed indifference, "I feel pretty done-in, and I daresay I shall sleep like a log. After all, it's different for me. I mean, it isn't as though I knew Mr. Herriard."