“We’ve put the dinner back, ma’am.”
“Put the dinner back! And that’s all you think of, when at any minute your master—oh, dear, dear, what can have happened to him?”
“Well, it’s a dark night, ma’am, to be sure.”
“Gracious goodness, can’t I see that? If Thomas weren’t with him——”
The butler shook his head. “Under notice, ma’am,” he said. “I think the worst of Thomas. On a dark night, with Thomas——”
Miss Peacock gasped.
“I should say my prayers, ma’am,” the butler murmured softly.
Miss Peacock stared, aghast. “Under notice?” she cried. “Well, of all the—’deed, and I wish you were all under notice, if that is the best you’ve got to say.”
“Hadn’t you better,” said Josina from the darkness outside, “send Fewtrell to meet him with a lanthorn?”
“And get my nose bitten off when your father comes home! La, bless me, I don’t know what to do! And no one else to do a thing!”