was wearing his best clothes and best manner. This Lady Linden was an
aristocratic dame, and Mr. Slotman had come for the express purpose of
making himself very agreeable.

"Oily-looking wretch!" her ladyship thought. "Well?" she asked aloud.

"I am grateful to your ladyship for permitting me to see you."

"Well, you can see me if that's all you have come for."

"No!" he said. "If--if I--" He paused.

"Oh, sit down!" said Lady Linden. "Well, now what is it you want? Have
you something to sell? Books, sewing machines?"

"No, no!" He waved a deprecating hand. "I am come on a matter that
interests me greatly. I am a financier, I have offices in London. Until
lately I was employing a young lady on my staff."

"Well?"

"Her name was Meredyth, Miss Joan Meredyth."

"I don't want to hear anything at all about her," said Lady Linden. "Why
you come to me, goodness only knows. If you've come for information I
haven't got any. If you want information, the right person to go to is
her husband!"

"Her--her husband!" Mr. Slotman seemed to be choking.

"You seem surprised," said Lady Linden. "Well, so was I, but it is the
truth. If you are interested in Miss Meredyth, the proper person to make
enquiries of is Mr. Hugh Alston, of Hurst Dormer, Sussex. Now you know.
Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Slotman passed his hand across his forehead. This was unexpected, a blow
that staggered him.

"You--you mean, your ladyship means that Miss Meredyth is recently
married."

"Her ladyship means nothing of the kind," said Lady Linden tartly. "I
mean that Miss Meredyth has for some very considerable time been Mrs.
Hugh Alston. They were married, if you want to know--and I don't see why
it should any longer be kept a secret--three years ago, in June,
nineteen eighteen at Marlbury, Dorset, where my niece was at school with
Miss Meredyth. Now you know all I know, and if you want any further
information, apply to the husband."

"But--but," Slotman said, "I--" He was thinking. He was trying to
reconcile what he had heard in his own office when he had spied on Hugh
Alston and Joan, when on that occasion he had heard Hugh offer marriage
to the girl as an act of atonement. How could he offer marriage if they
were already married? There was something wrong, some mistake!

"But what?" snapped her ladyship, who had taken an exceeding dislike to
the perspiring Mr. Slotman.

"Is your ladyship certain that they were married? I me