Her mother entered shortly afterwards and a general conversation arose, which continued until the arrival of Ralph Edie and his sister. They were accompanied by Felix Hulme; and their advent completed the small party expected at Ragstaff Park.
“You late arrivals,” said Lorian, “have only just time to dress, unless you want to miss everything but the nuts!”
“Oh, Harry!” said Mrs. Reynor, “you are as bad as your father!”
“Worse,” said Lorian promptly. “I am altogether more rude and have a bigger appetite!”
With such seeming trivialities, then, opened the drama of Ragstaff, the drama in which Fate had cast four of us for leading rôles.
II
Following dinner, the men—or, as my friend has it, “the gunners”—drifted into the hall. The hall at Ragstaff Park is fitted as a smoking lounge. It dates back to Tudor days and affords some magnificent examples of mediæval panelling. At every point the eye meets the device of a man with a ragged staff—from which the place derives its name, and which is the crest of the Reynors.
A conversation took place to which, at the time, I attached small importance, but which, later, assumed a certain significance.
“Extraordinary business,” said Felix Hulme—“that attempted burglary at Sir Julius’s studio last night.”