I may have been mistaken, but it affected me as the translated impulse of the desire to lay hands on the manuscript, and this led me to indulge in a quick anticipatory grab which may very well have seemed ungraceful, or even impertinent, and which at any rate left Mr.
Paraday's two admirers very erect, glaring at each other while one of them held a bundle of papers well behind him.

An instant later Mr.
Morrow quitted me abruptly, as if he had really carried something off with him.

To reassure myself, watching his broad back recede, I only grasped my manuscript the tighter.

He went to the back door of the house, the one he had come out from, but on trying the handle he appeared to find it fastened.

So he passed round into the front garden, and by listening intently enough I could presently hear the outer gate close behind him with a bang.