Without moving a muscle he held the door open, and then shut it behind me.

'Sir Walter is engaged, Sir, and I have orders to admit no one.

Perhaps you will wait.' The house was of the old-fashioned kind, with a wide hall and rooms on both sides of it.

At the far end was an alcove with a telephone and a couple of chairs, and there the butler offered me a seat.
'See here,' I whispered.

'There's trouble about and I'm in it.