nterview, even at the time,
was the clemency of my reception by an obviously startled man. He
interrupted my apologies to commend my zeal; as for explanations, it was
for him to explain to me, if I would be good enough to step inside. I
did so with a strange sense of impersonal fear or foreboding, due partly
to the stuffy darkness of the hall, partly to a quiver of the kindly
hand upon my shoulder. The dining-room, however, was all lit up, and
like an oven. Whisky was on the side-board, and I had to join Mr. Royle
in the glass that loosened his tongue.

It was quite true about the servants; they had gone first, and he was
the last to leave the ship. The metaphor did not strike me as
unfortunate until it was passed off with a hollow laugh. Mr. Royle no
longer disguised his nervous worry; he seemed particularly troubled
about his wife, who appeared to have followed the servants into the
country, and whom he could not possibly join. He mentioned that he had
taken her up to town and seen her off; then, that he was going up again
himself by the last train that night; finally--after a pause and between
ourselves--that he was sailing immediately for America. When I heard
this I thought of Delavoye; but Royle seemed so glad when he had told
me, and soon in such a stew about his train, that I felt certain there
could be nothing really wrong. It was a sudden call, and a great upset
to him; he made no secret of either fact or any of his plans. He had
left his baggage that morning at the club where he was going to sleep.
He even told me what had brought him back, and that led to an equally
voluntary explanation of the hammering I had heard in the road.

"Would you believe it? I'd forgotten all about our letters!" exclaimed
Abercromby Royle as we were about to leave the house together. "Having
the rest of the day on my hands, I thought I might as well come back
myself to give the necessary instructions. But it's no use simply
filling up the usual form; half your correspondence still finds its way
into your empty house; so I was just tacking this lid of an old cigar
box across the slot. I'll finish it, if you don't mind, and then we can
go so far together."

But we went together all the way, and I saw him off in a train laden
with Bank Holiday water-folk. I thought he scanned them somewhat closely
on the platform, and that some of my remarks fell on deaf ears. Among
other things, I said I would gladly have kept the empty house aire