“If you please, sir, Cook says as the missus says as Mrs. Byrne says as⁠—as”⁠—the skinny maid faltered in this interminable forest of “as’s”⁠—“as you ’as the big sack that was in the scullery, sir, and if you’ve done with it, sir, could we ’ave it back, sir, as the man’s come for the bottles?”

The sack! Emily’s sack! John had no need of the young woman’s exposition. He remembered vividly. He remembered now what Stephen had said about it⁠—in the boat⁠—under the wall. John had “borrowed” it. He remembered now. But what the devil had he borrowed it for? And why⁠—why should he have to stand on his own doorstep this terrible day and invent lies for a couple of women?

And what had the man coming for the bottles to do with it, he wondered?