"Then the judge turns on me and Wilkes and ordered us to clear out and to go to bed. And Wilkes said we'd best do it because the judge would take care of you and get you to your room quietly. And the last thing I heard before he slammed inside his room was:
"'There's one thing; I've got a daughter!'"
I looked at Jenkins miserably. He was _right_; he did have a daughter, and I wanted her. But just now, I wished with all heart that she was somebody's--anybody else's daughter--than that of the man who had witnessed my humiliation.
_How_ had he managed to get me to my room? And had she seen or heard me? Oh, she must have!
Well, nothing mattered now--nothing could ever matter any more. It was some miserable comfort to feel, and _know_, that nothing worse could ever happen!
Why, there was nothing _worse_ left in all the world. By Jove, I was sure of _that_ much!
"Pardon, sir, for not waiting till you came down," the butler was saying, "but Mr. Billings was just so set on me bringing this to you, I _had_ to."
He had entered, responding to Jenkins' invitation, bearing in his hand a gray paper parcel.
"For me?" I questioned, as he laid it on the table, and I eyed it ominously. Yet it could not be the same I had sent Billings myself--I could see that--for it was smaller, more compact, and in a different wrapper. But I was _afraid_ to examine it.
"Yes, sir--he's very bad this morning, sir; the--er--that is, something last night seems to have excited him."
His eye roved eloquently between Jenkins and myself. He continued soberly:
"He's locked me and Perkins out of his rooms again, and wouldn't open the door only wide enough to stick this through. And his message"--hesitatingly--"he said just tell you you had better get these pajamas back where they came from just as quickly as you could--you would _if you were wise_, he said."
"Oh!" I uttered, dazed by this new blow. So it _was_ her pajamas.
But there was more of the message--I could see it in Wilkes' eye.
"Yes, sir," he went on as I gave him a nod. "Mr. Billings called through the door-crack--and his voice was particularly shrill--screechy-like--very unnatural, sir--and he said: 'You tell him I say he'll find it very dangerous to keep them by him a moment; tell him my advice is to return them _immediately_!'"