"I beg your pardon, Miss Lindsay, I thought--" He left his sentence unfinished, and began another. "I heard some one moving about below, and knowing that the household was still upstairs, I thought it might be some one who had no business here, so hurried down to see who it was." He made as if to withdraw, but Nora stopped him. "Morgan, who has been interfering with my father's things?" "I beg your pardon; I don't quite follow." "Where's the Satsuma vase? and the powder blues? and the bronzes? and all sorts of things?" "Have they been removed?" "You can see for yourself that they've been removed; who has taken them? where are they?" Morgan glanced round the room with, in his air, as it seemed to Nora, almost a suggestion of amusement. "They do seem to have been removed, don't they? As you say, all sorts of things." "Didn't you know they had been removed?" "Perhaps Mr. Nash has had it done; or Dr. Banyard." "Why should they? Besides, neither of them has been here since Saturday; and the things were here then, because I saw them." "Ah, if you saw them that doesn't look as if they could have had it done, does it? But--may I ask, Miss Lindsay, how it matters?" "How it matters, Morgan--the things are worth a great deal of money." "Isn't that all the more reason why they shouldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of--I don't wish to cause you pain, Miss Lindsay--of those who are coming?" "What do you mean?" "Don't you know? Then, in that case, Miss Lindsay, I will have inquiries made, and will inform you, at the earliest possible moment, of the result." He slipped out of the room so rapidly that she had not a chance to question him further, leaving her more bewildered than he had found her. What did he mean? what could he mean? She did not like to suspect him of impertinence, or even something worse; yet--what had he implied? That it would be just as well that these most valuable possessions of her father should be kept out of the hand--of those who were coming? She did not doubt that the state of affairs was known to the household; could he have been referring to the creditors? was he suggesting that they should be defrauded of what might go some distance towards settling their claims, and that she should connive at such a fraud? If he had not meant that, what had he meant? Her impulse was to call him back, and insist upon an explanation there and then.