“No uncle, not that I’ve seen something since.”
“Since! Captain Maynard went immediately away?”
“He did. But not without taking a certain thing along with him he ought not to have taken.”
“Taken a certain thing along with him! What do you mean, nephew?”
“That your honoured guest carried out of your house a piece of paper upon which something had been written.”
“By whom?”
“By my cousin Blanche.”
“When, and where?”
“Well, I suppose while he was getting ready to go; and as to the where, I presume it was done by Blanche in her bedroom. She went there after—what you saw.”
Sir George listened to this information with as much coolness as he could command. Still, there was a twitching of the facial muscles, and a pallor overspreading his cheeks, his nephew could not fail to notice.