and Sibyl induced me to remain here for the night, with such lively consequences. Come with me as my guest anywhere else, but not to Prior’s Tarrant.”
“Nevertheless, I should feel surer of your safety there than anywhere, and I do not speak without reason,” replied the General, with a metallic snap in his voice. “I should wish at least to be accorded the privilege of finishing my proposition.”
Beaumanoir promptly apologized very gracefully for his discourteous interruption, excusing it on the score of the strain on his nerves. He would be delighted to listen to any proposals, but nothing would shake his determination not to go back to Prior’s Tarrant.
“My dear sir, the tangled woodland of the park there is the ideal spot for a lurking assassin. Mediæval architecture provided the house with nooks and corners which it would tax even your foresight to patrol,” he insisted.
“But,” said the General, “there is safety in numbers; and I was going to propose—rather coolly, perhaps—that you should have a house-party there. If I might bring Mrs. Sadgrove, and Alec and Sybil Hanbury would also give
[117]
