“What do you mean⁠—all the cases?”

“The two small cases as well.”

“I wish you wouldn’t be so officious, Pagett. Those small cases were no business of yours. They belong to Mrs. Blair.”

Pagett looked crestfallen. He hates to make a mistake.

“So you can just pack them up again neatly,” I continued. “After that you can go out and look around you. Jo’burg will probably be a heap of smoking ruins by tomorrow, so it may be your last chance.”

I thought that that would get rid of him successfully for the morning, at any rate.

“There is something I want to say to you when you have the leisure, Sir Eustace.”

“I haven’t got it now,” I said hastily. “At this minute I have absolutely no leisure whatsoever.”