ncers, we had to pick our way through a fantastic crowd which eyed me with polite curiosity. Couples seated on the next flight drew aside to le

om is un

tress considers it the ch

tes agre

oved in there the

him hastily. "By-the-by, wh

rassment. "You'll excuse me, sir, but that ain'

ave thought it

ou're only askin' it to try me. But so

lary young man, and I, too, am playi

ed down. On the bed lay the full costume of a Punchinello: striped stockings, breeches with rosettes, tin

o get into these

of any assi

coat and waistcoat, and sat down to unlace my boots. "Your

is,

r. Her

liam arranged my brushes carefully-"youth must 'ave its fling. Oh, he's a caution!" A chuckle escaped him; h

more, t

refore Trewlove is certainly an impudent scoundrel, and any grand jury would bring in a true bill against him for a swindler. My tenants are a lady whose servants may not reveal her name, and a young man-her husband perhaps-described as 'a lit

trusting to throw themselves on my forgiveness, while Trewlove lay a-hiding or fled from vengeance across the high seas. Here was a possible explanation; but I will admit that it seemed, on second thoughts, an unlikely one. An irate landlord, returning unexpectedly and finding his house in possession of unauthorised tenants-catching them, moreover, in the act of turning it upside-down with a fancy-dress ball-would naturally begin to be nasty on the doorstep. The idea of placating him by a bedroom near the roof and the costume of a Punchinello was too bold altogether, and relied too much on

nce or twice to speculate on the eccentricities of the figure to which it had been shaped or the abstract anatomical knowledge of the tailor who had shaped it. I declare that the hump seemed the one normal thing about it. But by this time my detect

and across it to a garden in the rear of the house, and that of a room overlooking the street and scarcely less spacious. This had been the deceased General's bedroom, and in indolence rather than impiety I had left it unused

ree of slipperiness; and across the far end stretched a buffet-table presided over by a venerable person in black, wi

ght sight of me. His features underwent a sudden and astonishing change; and almost dropping

, and eagerness, and suppressed agitation, and an appeal for s

rt of confidential whisper, very quick and

him with st

ou not?" he asked. There could

this, my house, for some t

I left particular instructions -But per

ke me to her-since I have not th

e best face on it. Twice she has sent in to know if you have arriv

nxious to

rit,

osure, then?" said I dar

d led the way. "It may, after all, be a lesson to M

g to be a lesson t

'ad to keep dark,

ell beli

r-which gives a larky appearance, if I may say it-and doubtless is so meant-you reassur

e that," said I. "As fo

his excitement, yet deferentially. "Yonder is the mistress, sir-in the yellow h

atching the door for me. She came towards me with an eager catch of the breath-one so very like a cr

spic! I had set my heart on his coming, and had almost given him up.

led certain notes in her voice, certain moments when, in the midst of the service of folly, she had seemed to isolate herself and stand watching, aloof from the audience and her fellow-actors, almost pathetically alone. Report said, too, that she was good, and that she had domestic troubles, though it had not reached me what these troubles were. Certainly she appeared altogether too good for these

ou supper at once," she said quietly, in a tone that warned me not

sense which works at times in the back of a man's head-of Horrex discreetly following u

switched on the electric light an

f, please," s

0 Ah, to be sure!" I had

you?" she asked musingly. "His

ble?" I s

esentable.' They are never

l remains to be proved

reckon you high amongst the

name? T

eman-or whoever it is. I have never been in a po

then, in a

ne Street. He want

t am

another ten. He gave your name; and t

o be sure (for reasons which are dark to me) he appears to have given my name to the police; but we will put that riddle aside

hought t

cried, as I turned away with a slight shrug of the shoulder, "that wa

ticular, cannot be trusted to manage him; and-and in short you wish him released as so

yes. She was passing beautiful,

I thought that-as his friend-an

tch. "Has Horrex a

et, and with a great pity I read in hers that

your leave I am going to take Horrex with me. The fact is, I am a little in doubt as to my inf

azed at me blankly. "My husband?" She began to laugh softly, u

feeling pretty

ve you-what

orrex to get himself and the policeman into the cab, I w