to her own room, when the butler entered hurriedly, and with traces of well-disciplined agitation on his episcopal countenance. Mr. Prince had grown gray in the ducal service; but, beyond a slight fatherliness of manner, he did not presume on the fact towards the orphan scion of the great house.
“I really don’t know, Miss, if I ought to disturb you so late on such a matter,” he said. “'Two men have called to see his Grace, and, failing him, insisted on my ascertaining if you would receive them.”
“I know nothing of the Duke’s affairs, and I am just going up to bed,” Sybil replied, wondering at the usually correct retainer’s excitement. “Besides, Prince, ‘insist’ is rather a curious word to use here,” she added with a trace of asperity.
“I should not have ventured to repeat such an objectionable phrase, Miss, if it had not been used with a sort of authority,” the butler hastened to put himself right. “I ought to have mentioned that they are Scotland Yard detectives, which accounts for my being a bit flurried.”
Sybil promptly sat down again and bade Prince show the visitors in. She had no desire
[89]
