"Yes, but only for a little while," I answered. "Do you want him particularly?"
"Only to give him these keys," the butler replied, laying them on a table.
"Have you put the picture back in the gallery?"
"Yes, sir; stood it on a table in the middle of the hall. Mr. Vasari must be very strong to have been able to carry it off by himself. It takes two of us to lift it."
"Ah! Have the company returned yet?"
"No, sir, they will not be back for a long time."
"Why, how's that?"
"We've just had a boy from the vicarage to say so. Miss Wyville has persuaded them all to accompany the church choir in a round of carol singing."
I found the news particularly agreeable. Sir Hugh could now procure the warrant without Angelo's having any idea of what was in store for him, and I should have ample time to study the weird picture and to examine the interior of the Nuns' Tower, two occupations in which I resolved to have no companion. A vague feeling of peril gave a charm to the idea. I did not know what form the peril might take, but determined to be prepared for it in any shape, I took the liberty of borrowing a brace of loaded pistols which Sir Hugh kept in a drawer of his writing-table.