“Yes, sir.”

Grave, taciturn, watchful, secret and suave, with an appearance of tight-lipped reticence about him which a perpetual faint questioning look in his eyes denied, Hill looked an ideal man servant, who knew his station in life, and was able to uphold it with meek dignity.  From the top of his trimly-cut grey crown to his neatly-shod silent feet he exuded deference and respectability.  His impassive mask of a face was incapable—­apart from the faint query note in the eyes—­of betraying any of the feelings or emotions which ruffle the countenances of common humanity.

On the way downstairs, Hill saw Police-Constable Flack in conversation with a lady at the front door.  The lady was well-known to the butler as Mrs. Holymead, the wife of a distinguished barrister, who had been one of his master’s closest friends.  She seemed glad to see the butler, for she greeted him with a remark that seemed to imply a kinship in sorrow.

“Isn’t this a dreadful thing, Hill?” she said.

“It’s terrible, madam,” replied Hill respectfully.

Mrs. Holymead was extremely beautiful, but it was obvious that she was distressed at the tragedy, for her eyes were full of tears, and her olive-tinted face was pale.  She was about thirty years of age; tall, slim, and graceful.  Her beauty was of the Spanish type:  straight-browed, lustrous-eyed, and vivid; a clear olive skin, and full, petulant, crimson lips.  She was fashionably dressed in black, with a black hat.

“The policeman tells me that Miss Fewbanks has not come up from Dellmere yet,” she continued.

“No, madam.  We expect her to-morrow.  I believe Miss Fewbanks has been too prostrated to come.”

“Dreadful, dreadful,” murmured Mrs. Holymead.  “I feel I want to know all about it and yet I am afraid.  It is all too terrible for words.”

“It has been a terrible shock, madam,” said Hill.

“Has the housekeeper come up, Hill?”

“No, madam.  She will be up to-morrow with Miss Fewbanks.”

“Well, is there nobody I can see?” asked Mrs. Holymead.

Police-Constable Flack was impressed by the spectacle of a beautiful fashionably-dressed lady in distress.

“The inspector in charge of the case is upstairs, madam,” he suggested.  “Perhaps you’d like to see him.”  It suddenly occurred to him that he had instructions not to allow any stranger into the house, and police instructions at such a time were of a nature which classed a friend of the family as a stranger.  “Perhaps I’d better ask him first,” he added, and he went upstairs with the feeling that he had laid himself open to severe official censure from Inspector Chippenfield.

He came downstairs with a smile on his face and the message that the inspector would be pleased to see Mrs. Holymead.  In his brief interview with his superior he had contrived to convey the unofficial information that Mrs. Holymead was a fine-looking woman, and he had no doubt that Inspector Chippenfield’s readiness to see her was due to the impression this information had made on his unofficial feelings.