‘Yes. That is who it was,’ said Davidson a little too casually.

‘Is Mrs Halcut-Hackett a patient of yours, Sir Daniel?’

‘It so happens that she is.’

‘Why did she leave alone? What about her husband and—hasn’t she got a débutante attached to her?’

‘The protégée, who is unfortunately une jeune fille un peu farouche, fell prey to toothache earlier in the evening and was removed by the General. I heard Lord Robert offer to escort Mrs Halcut-Hackett home.’

‘Why did he not do so?’

‘Perhaps because they missed each other.’

‘Come now, Sir Daniel, that’s not your real opinion.’

‘Of course it’s not, but I don’t gossip about my patients.’

‘I needn’t assure you that we shall be very discreet. Remember what you said about your attitude towards this case.’

‘I do remember. Very well. Only please, if you can avoid my name in subsequent interviews, I shall be more than grateful. I’ll go on with my recital. Mrs Halcut-Hackett, embedded in ermine, gives a swift look round the hall and slips out through the doors into the night. My attention is arrested by something in her manner, and while I stare after her somebody jostles me so violently that I actually stumble forward and only just save myself from falling. It is Captain Withers, who has come out of the cloakroom behind me. I turn to receive his apologies and find him with his mouth set and his unpleasant eyes—I mistrust people with white lashes—goggling at the stairhead. He does not even realize his own incivility, his attention is fixed on Lord Robert Gospell, who has begun to descend the stairs. This Captain Withers’s expression is so singular that I, too, forget our encounter. I hear him draw in his breath. There is a second’s pause and then he, too, thrusts his way through a party of chattering youngsters and goes out.’

‘Do you think Withers was following Mrs Halcut-Hackett?’

‘I have no reason to think so, but I do think so.’

‘Next?’

‘Next? Why, Mr Alleyn, I pull myself together and start for the door. Before I have taken three steps young Donald Potter comes out of the buffet with Bridget O’Brien. They meet Lord Robert at the foot of the stairs.’

‘Yes?’ said Alleyn, as Davidson paused.

‘Donald Potter,’ he said at last, ‘says what is no doubt a word of farewell to Bridget, and then he too goes out by the front entrance.’

‘Without speaking to his uncle?’

‘Yes.’

‘And Lord Robert?’

‘Lord Robert is asking in that very penetrating high-pitched voice of his if Dimitri has seen Mrs Halcut-Hackett. I see him now and hear him—the last thing I do see or hear before the double doors close behind me.’

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Davidson Digresses

‘THAT WAS a very vivid little scene,’ said Alleyn.

‘Well, it was not so long ago, after all,’ said Davidson.