He hears his voice faltering, and knows that he is edging towards the door.

After all, what can the bravest man do with an angry old woman, except to get away from her as quickly as possible?
And the professor, through brave enough in the usual ways, is not brave where women are concerned.
"Guardian or no guardian, I will thank you to remember you are in _my_ house!" cries Miss Majendie, in a shrill tone that runs through the professor's head.
"Certainly.

Certainly," says he, confusedly, and then he slips out of the room, and having felt the door close behind him, runs tumultuously down the staircase.

For years he has not gone down any staircase so swiftly.

A vague, if unacknowledged, feeling that he is literally making his escape from a vital danger, is lending wings to his feet.