Even Aunt Lin seemed to have forgotten The Franchise for a spell and was at her woolly and endearing best-full of the birthday presents she was buying for Lettice's twins in Saskatchewan. She had provided his favourite lunch-cold ham, boiled potatoes, and brown-betty with thick cream-and moment by moment he was finding it more difficult to realise that this was the Friday morning he had dreaded because it would see the beginning of a Watchman campaign against them. It seemed to him that the Bishop of Larborough was very much what Lettice's husband used to call "a busted flush." He couldn't imagine now why he had wasted a thought on him.
It was in this mood that he went back to the office. And it was in this mood that he picked up the receiver to answer Hallam's call.
"Mr. Blair?" Hallam said. "I'm at the Rose and Crown. I'm afraid I've got bad news for you. Inspector Grant's here."
"At the Rose and Crown?"
"Yes. And he's got a warrant."
Robert's brain stopped functioning. "A search warrant?" he asked stupidly.
"No; a warrant to arrest."
"No!"
"I'm afraid so."
"But he can't have!"