st remember, Villiers, that I have seen this woman, in the ordinary
adventure of London society, talking and laughing, and sipping her
coffee in a commonplace drawing-room with commonplace people. But you
know what you are saying."

"I do; I have not allowed myself to be led by surmises or fancies. It
was with no thought of finding Helen Vaughan that I searched for Mrs.
Beaumont in the dark waters of the life of London, but such has been
the issue."

"You must have been in strange places, Villiers."

"Yes, I have been in very strange places. It would have been useless,
you know, to go to Ashley Street, and ask Mrs. Beaumont to give me a
short sketch of her previous history. No; assuming, as I had to
assume, that her record was not of the cleanest, it would be pretty
certain that at some previous time she must have moved in circles not
quite so refined as her present ones. If you see mud at the top of a
stream, you may be sure that it was once at the bottom. I went to the
bottom. I have always been fond of diving into Queer Street for my
amusement, and I found my knowledge of that locality and its
inhabitants very useful. It is, perhaps, needless to say that my
friends had never heard the name of Beaumont, and as I had never seen
the lady, and was quite unable to describe her, I had to set to work in
an indirect way. The people there know me; I have been able to do some
of them a service now and again, so they made no difficulty about
giving their information; they were aware I had no communication direct
or indirect with Scotland Yard. I had to cast out a good many lines,
though, before I got what I wanted, and when I landed the fish I did
not for a moment suppose it was my fish. But I listened to what I was
told out of a constitutional liking for useless information, and I
found myself in possession of a very curious story, though, as I
imagined, not the story I was looking for. It was to this effect.
Some five or six years ago, a woman named Raymond suddenly made her
appearance in the neighbourhood to which I am referring. She was
described to me as being quite young, probably not more than seventeen
or eighteen, very handsome, and looking as if she came from the
country. I should be wrong in saying that she found her level in going
to this particular quarter, or associating with these people, for from
what I was told, I should think the worst den in London far too good
for her. The person from whom