"Tilly darling, don’t leave us!" was the agonised cry of Mrs. Welwyn and Amelia.... Next moment Mr. Welwyn, finding himself alone in his own drawing-room, rose to his feet and, as rapidly as was compatible with the dignity of a scholar and a gentleman, joined the panic-stricken mob in his bedroom. Almost simultaneously the door onto the landing was thrown open, and Mr. Stillbottle’s wheezy voice announced:-- "Lord Mainwaring, Lady Mainwaring, and party!" Then in a surprised and informal tone:-- "Hallo! Stage clear?" CHAPTER XXI UNREHEARSED Mr. Mainwaring, Lady Adela, and party--the latter comprised Sylvia, Connie Carmyle, and Dicky--came to a standstill in the middle of the vast and empty drawing-room and looked enquiringly about them. Lady Adela, upon whom the labour of climbing the staircase had told heavily, first deleted from her features the stately smile which she had mechanically assumed before crossing the threshold, and then began to sit down upon the piece of furniture which Mr. Stillbottle had recently valued at twelve-and-six-pence. "I would n’t set in that chair, mum, not if I was you," remarked a husky voice in her ear. "The off ’hid leg is a trifle dicky." Lady Adela, suspended in mid-air like Mahomet’s coffin, started violently upwards into a vertical position, and then, having, on the advice of the officious Mr. Stillbottle, selected the sofa, took in the drawing-room with one comprehensive sweep of her lorgnette. Mr. Stillbottle withdrew, doubtless to con his lines. "H’m," remarked Lady Adela. "This is evidently not one of the rooms that has just been in the hands of the painters and decorators." "Dick," enquired Sylvia, who had been superciliously inspecting the mahogany whatnot with the deal back, "who was that furtive Oriental person who slipped past us on the staircase? Not another future relative-in-law, I trust." "The stout nigger gentleman, you mean?" said Dicky, with unimpaired good humour. "I fancy he must have been calling on Mr. Welwyn about his studies. I have a notion that London University is somewhere about here." "What a jolly old-fashioned house this is," said Connie from the window-seat. "How nice and shady this big square must be in summer." "It is a fairly shady locality all the year round, I fancy," observed Sylvia sweetly. Kind-hearted Mr. Mainwaring coughed, and looked unhappily towards his son. But Dicky did not appear to have heard. He had just discovered his carnations. Lady Adela took up the tale. "There was a small but ferocious-looking creature with red whiskers," she announced, "hanging over the banisters on the top floor. Who would he be, now?" "Don’t ask me, Mum," said Dicky. "I’ve never been in the house before, remember, except downstairs. Probably a paper-hanger, or--" He was interrupted by the entrance of a stately procession headed by Mrs. Welwyn, the rest following in single file.