"Mrs. Deaves, sir," said the man demurely.
"What's the matter with her?"
"Hysterics, I believe, sir."
"Ah!" said Evan.
He found Simeon Deaves in the library. The old man greeted him with the unvarying sly grin. There was something inhuman about that grin. Nothing could move the old man much—save the threatened loss of money.
"So you got here," he said with cheerful indifference. "George told me they carried you off. How did you get clear?"
Evan told him briefly what had happened—keeping certain details to himself.
"Pooh! Sounds like a melodrama!" said the old man. "Don't believe a word of it!"
Evan, well-used to his ways by now, simply shrugged.
"There's the devil to pay here this morning," the old man went on, grinning like a mischievous boy at others' misfortunes. "Maud got a letter from them, and went into hysterics." He pointed up-stairs and laughed his noiseless laugh. "Hear her? George is up there slapping her hands and begging her to come to, and he'll pay the money. That's no way to treat hysterics. George is a fool."