“Mrs. Braiding,” said G.J.  “That child ought to be asleep.”

“He is asleep, sir,” said the woman, glancing into the mysteries of the immortal package, “but Maria hasn’t been able to get back yet because of the raid, and I didn’t want to leave him upstairs alone with the cat.  He slept all through the raid.”

“It seems some of you have made the cellar quite comfortable.”

“Oh, yes, sir.  Particularly now with the oilstove and the carpet.  Perhaps one night you’ll come down, sir.”

“I may have to.  I shouldn’t have been much surprised to find some damage here to-night.  They’ve been very close, you know....  Near Leicester Square.”  He could not be troubled to say more than that.

“Have they really, sir?  It’s just like them,” said Mrs. Braiding.  And she then continued in exactly the same tone:  “Lady Queenie Paulle has just been telephoning from Lechford House, sir.”  She still—­despite her marvellous experiences—­impishly loved to make extraordinary announcements as if they were nothing at all.  And she felt an uplifted satisfaction in having talked to Lady Queenie Paulle herself on the telephone.

“What does she want?” G.J. asked impatiently, and not at all in a voice proper for the mention of a Lady Queenie to a Mrs. Braiding.  He was annoyed; he resented any disturbance of the repose which he so acutely needed.

Mrs. Braiding showed that she was a little shocked.  The old harassed look of bearing up against complex anxieties came into her face.

“Her ladyship wished to speak to you, sir, on a matter of importance.  I didn’t know where you were, sir.”

That last phrase was always used by Mrs. Braiding when she wished to imply that she could guess where G.J. had been.  He did not suppose that she was acquainted with the circumstances of his amour, but he had a suspicion amounting to conviction that she had conjectured it, as men of science from certain derangements in their calculations will conjecture the existence of a star that no telescope has revealed.

“Well, better leave Lady Queenie alone for to-night.”

“I promised her ladyship that I would ring her up again in any case in a quarter of an hour.  That was approximately ten minutes ago.”

He could not say: 

“Be hanged to your promises!”

Reluctantly he went to the telephone himself, and learnt from Lady Queenie, who always knew everything, that the raiders were expected to return in about half an hour, and that she and Concepcion desired his presence at Lechford House.  He replied coldly that he was too tired to come, and was indeed practically in bed.  “But you must come.  Don’t you understand we want you?” said Lady Queenie autocratically, adding:  “And don’t forget that business about the hospitals.  We didn’t attend to it this afternoon, you know.”  He said to himself:  “And whose fault was that?” and went off angrily, wondering what mysterious power of convention it was that compelled him to respond to the whim of a girl whom he scarcely even respected.