"I only ask because there's a girl there who knows you. She inquired of me how you were not long since." "A girl who knows me? Who the devil may she be?" "I fancy her name's Roberts." "Aha! So she's got a new place, has she? She lives in my street. That's how I know her. Nice little thing, rather!" He made no further remark on the subject, but there remained an absent, amused smile on his face, and he pulled at his lower lip and fastened his gaze on the table. "You must come down sometime, and see me; my niece keeps house for me," he said before they separated, giving an address in Fulham. He wrung Richard's hand, patted him on the shoulder, winking boyishly, and went off whistling to himself very quietly in the upper register. CHAPTER X The slender, badly hung gate closed of itself behind him with a resounding clang, communicating a little thrill to the ground. In answer to his ring a girl came to the door. She was rather short, thin, and dressed in black, with a clean white apron. In the half light of the narrow lobby he made out a mahogany hat-rack of conventional shape, and on a wooden bracket a small lamp with a tarnished reflector. "No," Richard heard in a quiet, tranquil voice, "Mr. Aked has just gone out for a walk. He didn't say what time he should be back. Can I give him any message?" "He sent me a card to come down and see him this afternoon, and--I've come. He said about seven o'clock. It's a quarter past now. But perhaps he forgot all about it." "Will you step inside? He may only be away for a minute or two." "No, thanks. If you'll just tell him I've called--" "I'm so sorry--" The girl raised her hand and rested it against the jamb of the doorway; her eyes were set slantwise on the strip of garden, and she seemed to muse an instant. "Are you Mr. Larch?" she asked hesitatingly, just as Richard was saying good-day. "Yes," answered Richard. "Uncle was telling me he had had dinner with you. I'm _sure_ he'll be back soon. Won't you wait a little while?" "Well--" She stood aside, and Richard passed into the lobby.