“Wait!  I shall be with you in a minute!” Then I flew upstairs.

A very few minutes sufficed to wash and dress; and we were soon driving through the streets as fast as the horses could go.  It was market morning, and when we got out on Piccadilly there was an endless stream of carts coming from the west; but for the rest the roadway was clear, and we went quickly.  I had told the groom to come into the brougham with me so that he could tell me what had happened as we went along.  He sat awkwardly, with his hat on his knees as he spoke.

“Miss Trelawny, sir, sent a man to tell us to get out a carriage at once; and when we was ready she come herself and gave me the letter and told Morgan—­the coachman, sir—­to fly.  She said as I was to lose not a second, but to keep knocking till someone come.”

“Yes, I know, I know—­you told me!  What I want to know is, why she sent for me.  What happened in the house?”

“I don’t quite know myself, sir; except that master was found in his room senseless, with the sheets all bloody, and a wound on his head.  He couldn’t be waked nohow.  Twas Miss Trelawny herself as found him.”

“How did she come to find him at such an hour?  It was late in the night, I suppose?”

“I don’t know, sir; I didn’t hear nothing at all of the details.”

As he could tell me no more, I stopped the carriage for a moment to let him get out on the box; then I turned the matter over in my mind as I sat alone.  There were many things which I could have asked the servant; and for a few moments after he had gone I was angry with myself for not having used my opportunity.  On second thought, however, I was glad the temptation was gone.  I felt that it would be more delicate to learn what I wanted to know of Miss Trelawny’s surroundings from herself, rather than from her servants.

We bowled swiftly along Knightsbridge, the small noise of our well-appointed vehicle sounding hollowly in the morning air.  We turned up the Kensington Palace Road and presently stopped opposite a great house on the left-hand side, nearer, so far as I could judge, the Notting Hill than the Kensington end of the avenue.  It was a truly fine house, not only with regard to size but to architecture.  Even in the dim grey light of the morning, which tends to diminish the size of things, it looked big.

Miss Trelawny met me in the hall.  She was not in any way shy.  She seemed to rule all around her with a sort of high-bred dominance, all the more remarkable as she was greatly agitated and as pale as snow.  In the great hall were several servants, the men standing together near the hall door, and the women clinging together in the further corners and doorways.  A police superintendent had been talking to Miss Trelawny; two men in uniform and one plain-clothes man stood near him.  As she took my hand impulsively there was a look of relief in her eyes, and she gave a gentle sigh of relief.  Her salutation was simple.