"I must stop here and send for the police.
Nothing must be moved," and he hastily replaced the toy-porringer on
the exact circle of pressed velvet where it had stood before.
"Yes, sir," said Foljambe, but in another moment she returned.
"She would be very much obliged if you would come at once," she said.
"There's been a robbery in the house."
"Well, tell her there's been one in mine," said Georgie irritably. Then
good-nature mixed with furious curiosity came to his aid.
"Wait here, then, Foljambe, on this very spot," he said, "and see that
nobody touches anything. I shall probably ring up the police from The
Hurst. Admit them."
In his agitation he put on his hat, instead of going bareheaded and was
received by Lucia, who had clearly been looking out of the music-room
window, at the door. She wore her Teacher's Robe.
"Georgie," she said, quite forgetting to speak Italian in her greeting,
"someone broke into Philip's safe last night, and took a hundred pounds
in bank-notes. He had put them there only yesterday in order to pay in
cash for that cob. And my Roman pearls."
Georgie felt a certain pride of achievement.
"I've been burgled, too," he said. "My Louis XVI snuff-box is
worth more than that, and there's the piece of Bow china, and the
cigarette-case, and the Karl Huth as well."
"My dear! Come inside," said she. "It's a gang. And I was feeling so
peaceful and exalted.
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