"It was not likely that anybody had gone in."
"I suppose not."
"Why do you ask me that, Guildea?"
"Well, well!"
"Besides, if anybody had gone in on your return you'd have caught him, surely."
Guildea coughed again. The Father, surprised, could not fail to recognise that he was nervous and that his nervousness was affecting him physically.
"I must have caught cold that night," he said, as if he had read his friend's thought and hastened to contradict it. Then he went on:
"I entered the hall, or passage, rather."
He paused again. His uneasiness was becoming very apparent.