"Please, sir, I thought it was the surest way for me to send them back."
"But what made you send them back at all?"
Mary Ann's lip quivered, her eyes were cast down. "Oh—Mr. Lancelot—you know," she faltered.
"But I don't know," he said sharply.
"Please let me go downstairs, Mr. Lancelot. Missus must have heard me come in."
"You shan't go downstairs till you've told me what's come over you. Come upstairs to my room."
"Yessir."
She followed him obediently. He turned round brusquely, "Here, give me your parcels." And almost snatching them from her, he carried them upstairs and deposited them on his table on top of the comic opera.
"Now, then, sit down. You can take off your hat and jacket."
"Yessir."