Pagina 31 van 657

"I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab

drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a

remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached-evidently

the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a great hurry,

shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the maid who

opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.

"He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch

glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and

down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see

nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than

before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from

his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he

shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to

the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if

you do it in twenty minutes!'