“But that was extremely injudicious. If we had been obliged to evacuate Bachelors’ Buildings, their presence would have added immensely to our difficulties. You should have ordered them down, and insisted on their returning to their own quarters.” “So I did, sir.” There was a gleam of fun in Fitz’s eyes. “I ran up there myself to insist with greater effect, and they laughed at me. It was flat mutiny, but I could not spare sufficient men to put them under arrest.” “Ah, the women were driven mad by terror. Their feet were weighed down so that they could not move,” said Fath-ud-Din pityingly, when this had been translated to him. “And just at the beginning, sir,” Fitz went on to Sir Dugald, “when there was that crush in the gateway, Miss Keeling sent her maid down to ask me whether I couldn’t tell the people not to move about quite so much, because she wanted to sketch them. That was how I first found out that Lady Haigh and she were up there; but I didn’t think that the remark showed a proper sense of the seriousness of the situation. I assure you that it pained me very much, sir.” “Just translate that to the Vizier, Mr Kustendjian,” said Sir Dugald, but again incredulity was written on Fath-ud-Din’s face. “Surely my lord knows, as I do,” he said, “that the young man is one of those who delight to laugh at the beards of their elders, and to utter the thing that is not true, to the confusion of their own faces?” “I see that we shall have to convince this gentleman by the evidence of his own senses,” remarked Sir Dugald, addressing no one in particular. “Mr Anstruther, would you be kind enough to find out what the ladies are doing now?” “They are working on the terrace, sir,” said Fitz, returning, “and the servants are just bringing in afternoon tea.” “Very well. Be so good as to ask Lady Haigh to have coffee brought in as well, and tell her that Fath-ud-Din is coming to pay her a visit. She and Miss Keeling had better put on those veils of theirs, by the bye, for we don’t want any more complications introduced into this business.”