The smile had been wiped from Fountain's face; his eyes were fixed on her. He said: "I can't understand it at all. I'm most upset that such a message should have been given as coming from me. What on earth must your father have thought?"
"Well, he was slightly peeved," admitted Felicity. "Mr. Fountain, do you think we're on to a clue? Could there have been anything in the book?"
"If there was I've not the smallest idea what it could be," Fountain said. He turned aside and fumbled for a cigarette in the box on the table. "Sounds to me like a piece of damned officiousness."
Felicity was not satisfied. "Yes, but the burglary? The library and Daddy's study and the drawing room were all turned upside down, but not the dining room, and there was nothing taken. I believe Collins thought there was something, you know. He must have mistaken the book. What a sell for him! Daddy wouldn't have taken anything out of it, and it was never out of his hands, except for about ten minutes, when he left it behind at the Boar's Head when we went to call on Shirley."
Lady Matthews' mild voice broke into this speech. "Darling, such a lively imagination. But we really must go. Pray don't be upset, Mr. Fountain. All a misunderstanding. I'll tell my husband."
"I wish you would," he said. "I'm - most annoyed. Wouldn't have had such a thing happen for the world."
He seemed rather more put out than the occasion warranted and he relieved his feelings by turning on the butler, who had come in, and asking him roughly what he wanted.
Joan interposed. She had rung for Baker to show Lady Matthews out.
Lady Matthews was looking at Baker rather thoughtfully. It struck Felicity that the manor servants had an uncomfortable way of quietly entering the room whenever anything of importance was being said. When she was driving her mother home she remarked on this. "I think he heard, Mummy. Don't you?"
"I shouldn't be surprised," said Lady Matthews. "I'm afraid, darling, you were a little indiscreet. And Frank not in to lunch."