On reaching the house he found there both Benny and the old man's niece, and as the latter had already exhausted her budget of news as far as her uncle and aunt were concerned, she was only too glad to have another listener, and that one a handsome young man, to what she could tell about the doings at No. 22.
It appeared that no sooner was breakfast over on the previous day than Lady Clinton summoned all the servants into the morning-room, with the exception of her maid and her husband's valet, and there told them that, in consequence of Dr. Hoskins having ordered Sir Everard to quit London with the least possible delay, the establishment would be broken up that very day, that they, the domestics, would be paid a month's wages each in lieu of notice, and that they must one and all be ready to quit by five o'clock that same afternoon. After that she (Polly) had been employed all the morning in packing trunks under her mistress's supervision. About mid-day the Signora Dusanti and her little girl had taken their departure. Somewhat later the servants had all been summoned again to the morning-room and paid what was due to them, with a little present to each over and above their wages. By six o'clock there was no one left in the house save her ladyship, Sir Everard, the maid, and the valet. And that was all Miss Polly had to tell.
Burgo, without in the least doubting the girl's good faith, was somewhat sceptical on the latter point. Details which to her might seem of no importance might be of vital consequence to him.
"And did nobody trouble to wonder what had become of me, Polly?" he smilingly asked, "nor why I had so mysteriously disappeared?"
"Oh, yes, sir, Mr. Vallance told us at breakfast that you had been called away in the course of the night to attend the deathbed of a near relation."
"Ah, then Vallance is one of her ladyship's tools, as I suspected all along," was Burgo's unspoken comment. "My uncle probably suspected it too, which would account for his unconcealed dislike of the fellow." What he said aloud was, "It was a statement which reflected great credit on Mr. Vallance's powers of invention."
"Was it not true, then, sir?" asked Polly, with wide-open eyes.
"Not one word of it. But never mind that now. I suppose you did not see Sir Everard again before you left the house?"
"Oh, yes, I did, sir. The poor gentleman was much worse yesterday, and before Dobson, the butler, left, her ladyship asked him to help Vallance to carry Sir Everard downstairs into the drawing-room."
"To carry him down! Do you mean to say that he could no longer come downstairs with the help of Vallance's arm on one side and the balusters on the other, as he had lately been in the habit of doing?"