"Not--not now." There came a knocking at the door, rapid, insistent.

Grateful for the interruption, Rotherby went to open.
Mr.Green staggered forward with swollen eyes, his face inflamed with rage, and with something else that was not quite apparent to Rotherby.
"My lord!" he cried in a loud, angry voice.
Rotherby caught his wrist and checked him.

"Sh! sir," he said gravely.
"Not here." And he pushed him out again, her ladyship following them.
It was in the gallery--above the hall, in which the servants still stood idly about--that Mr.Green spattered out his wrathful tale of what had befallen in the library.
Rotherby shook him as if he had been a rat.

"You cursed fool!" he cried.
"You left him there--at the desk ?" "What help had I ?" demanded Green with spirit.

"My eyes were on fire.