'James isn't with Lucy, is he?' asked Hunter.
'He borrowed Alastair's jeep and it's outside now.'
'Oh, I see.'
'Even assuming he was commencing matters just as we arrived,' said Ross-Donaldson, looking at his watch, 'he's still about five minutes overdue already. But of course a margin like that isn't really significant.'
'What computation are you using?' asked Ayscue.
'Well, naturally it's all very approximate, but the expected positive correlation between age and duration has shown itself to be experimentally verifiable. The interesting thing is that, whereas some parabolic function would seem likely, what you in fact get is something pretty linear. My guess would be that, with a broadened sample, you'd get a concave asymptote as you moved further along the age axis, though a convex one at the other end strikes me as unlikely. Anyway, I don't suppose we'll be able to plot that in practice.'
'Who do those two other cars outside belong to?' asked Leonard.
'One would be mine, no doubt,' said Dr. Best with a smile.
'And the other presumably belongs to whoever let us in,' said Ross-Donaldson.
'But where is he?' asked Leonard.
At this point two men in civilian clothes appeared at the threshold. 'Good night, all,' they said, and withdrew.
Ross-Donaldson half closed his eyes and did a couple of very slow nods.
'Well, what happens now?' asked Hunter.
'We hang on for a bit,' said Ross-Donaldson, again looking at his watch. 'This is still Phase 1, wherein Lucy makes periodic reappearances. In half an hour or so we get to Phase 2, wherein she doesn't.'
'In the meantime we'd better decide whose turn it is next,' said Hunter.
'Dr. Best's, obviously,' said Ross-Donaldson. 'He was here before any of us.'
'I thought I'd made it clear that I was visiting Lady Hazell in my professional capacity and in no other.'
'You only made it clear to me,' said Hunter. 'Until this moment you hadn't a chance to make it clear to the rest of us.'
Ayscue said, 'I think I'd better make it clear too. I haven't come along for what I believe is the usual purpose either. Which I'm not criticizing for a moment, don't run away with that idea.'
'You surely don't think, padre, that Lucy would want to see you in your professional capacity, do you?' asked Ross-Donaldson.
'Padre?' said Dr. Best. 'Padre?'
'Yes, believe it or not I'm a member of the Army Chaplains Department. I know I'm not dressed as one, if that's what's mystifying you. But wherever possible I believe in not bringing the cloth into disrepute. If there'd been a crowd here tonight, as I understand there sometimes is, I might not have been able to get round to everybody and explain that my mind was on higher things than theirs was. Hence the incognito, doctor.'
'May I ask what does bring you here?'
'I gather there's a room full of old books somewhere in this building. Stuff that hasn't been looked at for years. I thought I might make arrangements to spend a day or two over here seeing if there's anything interesting. I go for the eighteenth century mostly. You never know what you might pick up in that way.'
'Quite so.'
After a pause, Hunter said, 'That doesn't leave many of us who are here for the usual purpose, does it? Just Alastair and me, it looks like.'
'And me,' said Leonard.
'Oh yes, sorry, Brian. Anyway, how shall we sort it out? There are still five people to be accommodated in various ways.'
'It's perfectly simple,' said Ross-Donaldson. 'But before I indicate the lines to be followed I insist that we all have another drink. Hunter, would you give me a hand, please?'
'Sure.'
The two moved away to the drinks table. On the others a short silence fell.
Dr. Best eventually said to Ayscue, 'You're a literary man, then.'
'Oh, not really. Just a dabbler. Music is more my line. Again, the eighteenth century is my thing on the whole.'
'I've always myself thought there was a certain amount to be said for Bach, though his hysterical emotionalism is a grave limitation.'
'I suppose you're talking about that stuffy old provincial four-in-a-bar organist. I must say I find his son Carl Philipp Emanuel far better value. All those wonderful tunes you can't sing. Not that there isn't something in Johann Christian as well, in a sort of Mozart-for-the-kiddies way.'
'A deeply anxious mind. That of Mozart.'
'Yes. Good in other ways, too.'
'Do you play an instrument?' asked Dr. Best.
