is he?" asked Kitwater. "If you know where he is, you ought
to be with him yourself instead of down here. You are paid to conduct
the case. How do you know that your man may not bungle it, and that we
may not lose him again?"

His tone was so rude and his manner so aggressive, that his niece was
about to protest. I made a sign to her, however, not to do so.

"I don't think you need be afraid, Mr. Kitwater," I said more soothingly
than I felt. "My man is a very clever and reliable fellow, and you may
be sure that, having once set eyes on Mr. Hayle, he will not lose sight
of him again. I shall leave for Paris to-morrow morning, and shall
immediately let you know the result of my search. Will that suit you?"

"It will suit me when I get hold of Hayle," he replied. "Until then I
shall know no peace. Surely you must understand that?"

Then, imagining perhaps, that he had gone too far, he began to fawn upon
me, and what was worse praised my methods of elucidating a mystery. I
cannot say which I disliked the more. Indeed, had it not been that I had
promised Miss Kitwater to take up the case, and that I did not want to
disappoint her, I believe I should have abandoned it there and then, out
of sheer disgust. A little later our hostess proposed that we should
adjourn to the house, as it was neatly lunch-time. We did so, and I was
shown to a pretty bedroom to wash my hands. It was a charming apartment,
redolent of the country, smelling of lavender, and after London, as
fresh as a glimpse of a new life. I looked about me, took in the
cleanliness of everything, and contrasted it with my own dingy
apartments at Rickford's Hotel, where the view from the window was not
of meadows and breezy uplands, but of red roofs, chimney-pots, and
constantly revolving cowls. I could picture the view from this window in
the early morning, with the dew upon the grass, and the blackbirds
whistling in the shrubbery. I am not a vain man, I think, but at this
juncture I stood before the looking-glass and surveyed myself. For the
first time in my life I could have wished that I had been
better-looking. At last I turned angrily away.

"What a duffer I am to be sure!" I said to myself. "If I begin to get
notions like this in my head there is no knowing where I may end. As if
any girl would ever think twice about me!"

Thereupon I descended to the drawing-room, which I found empty. It was
a true woman's room, daintily furnished, with little knick-knack