“Oh yes, sir—I knew Mr. Guy well enough in the old days. He hadn’t altered much.”
“Had you any conversation with him?”
“Just a bit, sir. He said, ‘Hullo, Grimsdale, how are you? I heard you’d blossomed into a full-blown landlord,’—that sort of thing, sir—he was always a gentleman for his joke.”
“Did he seem in good spirits?”
“The best, sir! He stood in the hall, laughing and talking a bit about old times, when I used to see him in the hunting field. Then he said, sudden-like, ‘I believe you’ve got a gentleman here who’s expecting me?’ I said we had, and took him straight to the parlour where the strange gentleman was waiting. I showed him in and closed the door on them.”
“Did you hear any greeting exchanged between them, Grimsdale?”
“Well, sir, I just heard the strange gentleman say, ‘Hello, Markenmore!’ and I heard Sir Guy say, ‘Hello, old chap, sorry to be so late.’ That was all, sir.”
“You didn’t hear Mr. Guy mention the other man’s name?”
“No, sir.”
“Neither then nor at any other time?”