eccentricity
in a man...like hating cats...or my own weakness of not being able to
touch any kind of fish-food.'

'Well, what was Manderson's?'

'He was full of them--the old man. There was his objection to all the
unnecessary fuss and luxury that wealthy people don't kick at much, as
a general rule. He didn't have any use for expensive trifles and
ornaments. He wouldn't have anybody do little things for him; he
hated to have servants tag around after him unless he wanted them. And
although Manderson was as careful about his clothes as any man I ever
knew, and his shoes--well, sir, the amount of money he spent on shoes
was sinful--in spite of that, I tell you, he never had a valet. He never
liked to have anybody touch him. All his life nobody ever shaved him.'

'I've heard something of that,' Trent remarked. 'Why was it, do you
think?'

'Well,' Mr Bunner answered slowly, 'it was the Manderson habit of mind,
I guess; a sort of temper of general suspicion and jealousy.

They say his father and grandfather were just the same....Like a dog
with a bone, you know, acting as if all the rest of creation was laying
for a chance to steal it. He didn't really think the barber would start
in to saw his head off; he just felt there was a possibility that he
might, and he was taking no risks. Then again in business he was always
convinced that somebody else was after his bone--which was true enough a
good deal of the time; but not all the time. The consequence of that was
that the old man was the most cautious and secret worker in the world
of finance; and that had a lot to do with his success, too.... But that
doesn't amount to being a lunatic, Mr Trent; not by a long way. You ask
me if Manderson was losing his mind before he died. I say I believe
he was just worn out with worrying over something, and was losing his
nerve.'

Trent smoked thoughtfully. He wondered how much Mr Bunner knew of the
domestic difficulty in his chief's household, and decided to put out a
feeler. 'I understood that he had trouble with his wife.'

'Sure,' replied Mr Bunner. 'But do you suppose a thing like that was
going to upset Sig Manderson that way? No, sir! He was a sight too big a
man to be all broken up by any worry of that kind.'

Trent looked half-incredulously into the eyes of the young man. But
behind all their shrewdness and intensity he saw a massive innocence. Mr
Bunner really believed a serious breach between husband and wife to be a