The old lady snorted blood and fire.
“A ferret!” she stormed. “I positively forbid ferrets in my drawing-room. Marchbanks, remove it immediately, and then have the goodness to fetch down Ponto from the curtain-pole.”
Now, although Mr. Marchbanks was a strong, silent man he did not quite know how to grapple with the situation. To begin with, although his experience of men and things was very wide, it has to be confessed that he had never handled a ferret in his life. And, again, it was not easy to know where Tobias had got to.
“Remove it immediately,” stormed the old lady.
Mr. Marchbanks stooped very cautiously to peer under the table. To his infinite relief Tobias was not there.
However, the hawklike eyes of his mistress very quickly detected the whereabouts of the alien presence.
“It is behind the window curtains.”
Mr. Marchbanks approached the window curtains very warily. But even then he was unable to see Tobias.
“There it is,” said his mistress. “In the corner there. Approach quietly. And if you value your fingers be careful where you put them.”
Mr. Marchbanks appeared to value his fingers so much that nothing seemed farther from his intention than to bring them into the vicinity of Tobias.