had lighted a cigar,
and was quite comfortable,--having thrown aside, for a time, that
consciousness of the futility of his journey which had perplexed
him,--when Stanbury accosted him.

"What! Mr. Stanbury,--how do you do? Fine day, isn't it? Are you
going up or down?"

"I'm going to see my own people at Nuncombe Putney, a village beyond
Lessboro'," said Hugh.

"Ah;--indeed." Colonel Osborne of course perceived at once that as
this man was going to the house at which he had just been visiting,
it would be better that he should himself explain what he had done.
If he were to allow this mention of Nuncombe Putney to pass without
saying that he himself had been there, he would be convicted of
at least some purpose of secrecy in what he had been doing. "Very
strange," said he; "I was at Nuncombe Putney myself yesterday."

"I know you were," said Stanbury.

"And how did you know it?" There had been a tone of anger in
Stanbury's voice which Colonel Osborne had at once appreciated, and
which made him assume a similar tone. As they spoke there was a man
standing in a corner close by the bookstall, with his eye upon them,
and that man was Bozzle, the ex-policeman,--who was doing his duty
with sedulous activity by seeing "the Colonel" back to London. Now
Bozzle did not know Hugh Stanbury, and was angry with himself that he
should be so ignorant. It is the pride of a detective ex-policeman to
know everybody that comes in his way.

"Well, I had been so informed. My friend Trevelyan knew that you were
there,--or that you were going there."

"I don't care who knew that I was going there," said the Colonel.

"I won't pretend to understand how that may be, Colonel Osborne; but
I think you must be aware, after what took place in Curzon Street,
that it would have been better that you should not have attempted to
see Mrs. Trevelyan. Whether you have seen her I do not know."

"What business is it of yours, Mr. Stanbury, whether I have seen that
lady or not?"

"Unhappily for me, her husband has made it my business."

"Very unhappily for you, I should say."

"And the lady is staying at my mother's house."

"I presume the lady is not a prisoner in your mother's house, and
that your mother's hospitality is not so restricted but that her
guest may see an old friend under her roof." This Colonel Osborne
said with an assumed look of almost righteous indignation, which
was not at all lost upon Bozzle. They had returned back towar