ng under
the seat, and then I rang loudly at the front door bell and waited to
see what fortune had got in her lucky-bag.

Had the men told me plainly that I was to go alone, I should never have
given the matter a second thought; but I could have sworn that the pair
of them were inside the limousine when I started away from the Richmond
Road, and how or where they got down I knew no more than the Lord
Chancellor. It remained to be seen if the people in the house were any
wiser; and you may be sure that I was curious enough by this time, and,
if the truth must be told, not a little frightened.

Boundary Road, as many will know, is a quiet thoroughfare in St. John's
Wood, most of the houses being detached, and many of them having twenty
feet of garden back and front. This particular house was larger than
ordinary, and owned an odd iron lamp fixed above the garden gate and
conspicuous a hundred yards away. Unlike the shanty in the Richmond
Road, nearly every window showed a bright light; and I don't suppose I
had waited twenty seconds, though they seemed like a quarter of an
hour, when the front door flew open and one of the prettiest
parlourmaids I have ever clapped eyes upon came running down the path,
and asked, even before she had opened the gate, if the lady had arrived.

"Why," says I, quickly enough, "that she certainly has not, being took
to dine with the Grand Duke Isaac at the Metropolitan Music Hall. But
her dresses are here, miss, and if you like to try on any of 'em before
she arrives, why, you're welcome so far as I am concerned."

She laughed at this and came out on to the pavement. I have said she
was pretty, but that's hardly the word for it. If she went on the
Gaiety stage to-morrow, she'd be the talk of the town in a
fortnight--and as for her manners, well, it isn't my place to remark on
those. Affability appeals to me wherever I find it, and if Betsy
Chambers isn't affable, then I don't know the meaning of the term.

"Where have you come from?" she asked me as we stood there; "have you
come from Scotland?"

"More like from Scotland Yard in these times," says I; "why should you
ask me that?"

"Because the gentleman said that his wife would be arriving from
Scotland to-night, but that he would not be here until to-morrow. I
wouldn't have stopped in the house for anything if he had not said she
was coming!"

"Then you're alone, my dear?"

She tossed her head.

"Yes, I am, and that's wh