“Of course it has,” I exclaimed, suddenly taken aback; for amidst all the turmoils and alarms, I had completely lost sight of this detail. “I suppose I had better call on the undertaker and make the necessary arrangements.”
“If you would be so kind, Rupert, and if you can spare the time. You have given up the whole day to us already.”
“I can manage,” said I. “And as to the time of the funeral. I don’t know whether it could be arranged for the evening. It gets dark pretty early.”
“No, Rupert,” she exclaimed, firmly. “Not in the evening. Certainly not. I will not have poor Harold’s body smuggled away in the dark like the dishonoured corpse of some wretched suicide. The funeral shall take place at the proper time, if I go with it alone.”
“Very well, Barbara. I will arrange for us to start at the time originally fixed. I only suggested the evening because—well, you know what to expect.”
“Yes, only too well! But I refuse to let a crowd of gaping sight-seers intimidate me into treating my dead husband with craven disrespect.”
“Perhaps you are right,” said I with secret approval of her decision, little as I relished the prospect that it opened. “Then I had better go and make the arrangements at once. It is getting late. But I am loath to leave you alone with Madeline and Wallingford.”
“I think, perhaps, we shall be better alone for the present, and you have your own affairs to attend to. But you must have some food before you go. You have had nothing since the morning, and I expect a meal is ready by now.”
“I don’t think I will wait, Barbara,” I replied. “This affair ought to be settled at once. I can get some food when I have dispatched the business.”
She was reluctant to let me go. But I was suddenly conscious of a longing to escape from this house into the world of normal things and people; to be alone for a while with my own thoughts, and, above all, to take counsel with Thorndyke. On my way out I called in at the dining room to make my adieux to Madeline and Wallingford. The former looked at me, as she shook my hand, very wistfully and I thought a little reproachfully.