'Thank you, Mr. Howarth, sir, but I've got no more questions just now which I want to put to you. You know what you do know, and perhaps one of these days I'll know it. Until then I can only say that I'm sorry to have troubled you.'
With that I opened the door and went out into the passage, none of them moving from where they were, or speaking a word as I went. When I got into the passage there came a pull at the front door bell, and a rat-tat-tat at the knocker.
'That's Mr. FitzHoward,' I said to myself.
As I felt convinced of it I made no bones about opening the front door, which I did do, and sure enough it was he. There he was, standing on the door-step. When he saw it was me that had opened the door he seemed surprised.
'Hello! Is that you?' he said. 'Well, I've come at last.'
'So I perceive--and as I'm just going, we can go together.'
'Has he answered that question?'
I felt a kind of want on me to keep on being haughty. If I hadn't, I believe I should have broken down. So I put my head up in the air, and I replied:
'You'll excuse me, Mr. FitzHoward, if I remark that whether he has or has not is my affair and not yours.'
He looked at me sharply.