“Exactly so! He must have supposed her to have come upon it suddenly, perhaps in the desk, in a secret drawer I thought might have been there. And at all costs he was bound to seize it from her, you know, and so he struck her down. Jupiter! I’d give a monkey only to have been able to see his face when he found it was only a list of some rubbishy sheets and towels! And I have made it out in my mind, Ned, that it must have been then that I came into the hall and set up a shout for Cousin Elinor. He must have guessed I should go straight to the bookroom, and so he had no time to make his escape, but flung open the window instead and created all that havoc only to make us think someone had jumped out into the garden and scattered a lot of snowdrops all over Cousin Elinor, and—”
“Did he do so? It seems a trifle premature,” Carlyon said dryly.
“Eh? Oh, I see!” Nicky said with a laugh. “No, but he splashed the water from the bowl on her face so that I should suppose him to be doing what he could to restore her. Not that I did think it, for I hope I am not such a gudgeon as that! But what if it had been that document, Ned, and I had not chanced to have come in just then?”
“I imagine he would have retired to his bed again,” said Carlyon.
“I suppose he might,” conceded Nicky. “And I suppose we might not have set it down at his door. Not but what—However, it don’t signify for he is no better off than he was! But what will he do next?”
“What indeed?”
“Ned, have you some notion in your head?” Nicky asked suspiciously.
“I have a great many notions in my head.”
“No, I won’t have you baiting me! It is a great deal too serious!”
“So it is, and there, I fancy, is Greenlaw coming from the bookroom. You had better take him up to Francis’ room,” Carlyon said, going toward the door.