not in the least surprised to hear it, sir; the landlady at
Kingsdown Crescent informed me that Mrs. Mandeville was an old woman.
Suppose we inquire?" added the impenetrable Pedgift, looking at the
red curtains in the shop window with a strong suspicion that Mrs.
Mandeville's granddaughter might possibly be behind them.

They tried the shop door first. It was locked. They rang. A lean and
yellow young woman, with a tattered French novel in her hand, opened it.

"Good-morning, miss," said Pedgift. "Is Mrs. Mandeville at home?"

The yellow young woman stared at him in astonishment. "No person of that
name is known here," she answered, sharply, in a foreign accent.

"Perhaps they know her at the private door?" suggested Pedgift Junior.

"Perhaps they do," said the yellow young woman, and shut the door in his
face.

"Rather a quick-tempered young person that, sir," said Pedgift. "I
congratulate Mrs. Mandeville on not being acquainted with her." He led
the way, as he spoke, to Doctor Downward's side of the premises, and
rang the bell.

The door was opened this time by a man in a shabby livery. He, too,
stared when Mrs. Mandeville's name was mentioned; and he, too, knew of
no such person in the house.

"Very odd," said Pedgift, appealing to Allan.

"What is odd?" asked a softly stepping, softly speaking gentleman in
black, suddenly appearing on the threshold of the parlor door.

Pedgift Junior politely explained the circumstances, and begged to know
whether he had the pleasure of speaking to Doctor Downward.

The doctor bowed. If the expression may be pardoned, he was one of those
carefully constructed physicians in whom the public--especially the
female public--implicitly trust. He had the necessary bald head,
the necessary double eyeglass, the necessary black clothes, and the
necessary blandness of manner, all complete. His voice was soothing, his
ways were deliberate, his smile was confidential. What particular branch
of his profession Doctor Downward followed was not indicated on his
door-plate; but he had utterly mistaken his vocation if he was not a
ladies' medical man.

"Are you quite sure there is no mistake about the name?" asked the
doctor, with a strong underlying anxiety in his manner. "I have known
very serious inconvenience to arise sometimes from mistakes about names.
No? There is really no mistake? In that case, gentlemen, I can only
repeat what my servant has already told you. Don't apologize, p