“How did the butler get into the secret passage?”
“Going round, I suppose. Part of his duties.... Anyhow he gave the poor beggar an awful doing—awful—brutal—black eye,—all that sort of thing; man much too respectful to hit back. Finally declared I’d been getting up a kind of rag,—squaring the servants to help and so forth.... Laxton, I fancy, half believed it.... Awkward thing, you know, having it said about that you ragged the Lord Chancellor. Makes a man seem a sort of mischievous idiot. Injures a man. Then going away, you see, seems a kind of admission....”
“Why did you go?”
“Lucy,” said the captain compactly. “Hysterics.”
“Shonts would have burst,” he added, “if I hadn’t gone.”
Madeleine was helpful. “But you’ll have to do something further,” she said.
“What is one to do?” squealed the captain.
“The sooner you get the Lord Chancellor certified a lunatic,” said the Professor soundly, “the better for your professional prospects.”
“He went on pretty bad after I’d gone.”
“You’ve heard”