man is restless until he comes in again--haunting the hall--it gets on
my nerves. Yet there is nothing I can actually complain of. He doesn't
intrude, he is as noiseless as a cat and vanishes if he sees you, but
you know that just out of sight he's still there--waiting--listening.
Peter, what is he waiting for? I don't think that it is apparent to the
rest of the household, I didn't notice it myself at first. But a few
months ago something happened and since then I don't seem able to get
away from it. It was in the night, about two o'clock; I was wakeful and
couldn't sleep. I thought if I read I might read myself sleepy. I hadn't
a book in my room that pleased me and I remembered a half-finished novel
I had left in the library. I didn't take a light--I know every turn in
the Towers blindfold. As you know, to reach the staircase from my room
I have to pass Barry's door, and at Barry's door I fell over something
in the darkness--something with hands of steel that saved me from an
awkward tumble and hurried me down the passage and into the moonlit
gallery before I could find a word of expostulation. Yoshio of course.
I was naturally startled and angry in consequence. I demanded an
explanation and after a great deal of hesitation he muttered something
about Barry wanting him--which is ridiculous on the face of it. If
Barry had really wanted him he would have been inside the room, not
crouched outside on the door mat. He seemed very upset and kept begging
me to say nothing about it. I don't remember how he put it but he
certainly conveyed the impression that it would not be good for Barry
to know. I don't understand it--Barry trusts him implicitly--and yet
this.... I'm afraid, and I've never been afraid in my life before." The
little break in her voice hurt him. He felt curiously unable to cope
with the situation. Her story disturbed him more than he cared to let
her see in her present condition of unwonted agitation. Twice in the
past they had stood shoulder to shoulder through a crisis of sufficient
magnitude and she had showed then a cautious judgment, a reliability of