He followed his summoner with increasing doubt, which was not dispelled by a solemn comicality in the scene of the study. There sat Colonel Adams, still unaffectedly dressed as a pantaloon, with the knobbed whalebone nodding above his brow, but with his poor old eyes sad enough to have sobered a Saturnalia. Sir Leopold Fischer was leaning against the mantelpiece and heaving with all the importance of panic.

      “This is a very painful matter, Father Brown (это очень неприятное дело, отец Браун; painful – болезненный; тягостный; неприятный),” said Adams. “The truth is, those diamonds we all saw this afternoon seem to have vanished from my friend’s tail-coat pocket (дело в том, что те бриллианты, которые мы все видели сегодня днем, кажется, исчезли у моего друга из заднего кармана фрака). And as you (а так как вы) – ”