"What of her?" "I have had another talk with the maid,--her companion, you know,--a girl named Dobson. It struck me that it was advisable to know more about Mrs. Hillmer than we do at present." Bruce made no comment, but he could not help reflecting that Corbett, the stranger from Wyoming, had entertained the same view. "Well," continued the detective, "I went about the affair as quietly as possible, but the maid, though willing, could not tell me much. Mrs. Hillmer, she thinks, married very young, and was badly treated by her husband. Finally, there was a rumpus, and she went on the stage, while Hillmer drank himself to death. He died a year ago, and they had been separated nearly five years. He was fairly well-to-do, but he squandered all his money in dissipation and never gave her a cent. Three years last Michaelmas she set up her present establishment at Raleigh Mansions, and there she has been ever since." "Then where does the money come from? It must cost her at least £2,000 a year to live." "That's just what the maid can't tell me. Her mistress led a very secluded life, and was never what you could call fast, though a very pretty woman. During this time she had only one visitor--a gentleman." "Ah!" "It sounds promising, but it ends in smoke, so far as I can see." "Why?" "This gentleman was a Colonel Montgomery--an old friend--though he wasn't much turned thirty, the maid says. He interested himself a lot in Mrs. Hillmer's affairs, looked after some investments for her, and was on very good terms with her, and nobody could whisper a word against the character of either of them. He was never there except in the afternoon. On very rare occasions he took Mrs. Hillmer, whose maid always accompanied them, to Epping Forest, or up the river, or on some such journey." "Go on!" "I'm sorry, sir, but the chase is over. He's dead." "Dead?" "Yes. The maid doesn't know how, or when, exactly, but one day she found her mistress crying, and when she asked her what was the matter, Mrs. Hillmer said, 'I've lost my friend.' The maid said, 'Surely not Colonel Montgomery, madam?' and she replied, 'Yes.' She quite took on about it." "Had the maid no idea as to the date of this interesting occurrence?" "Only a vague one. Sometime in the autumn or before Christmas. By Jove, yes; it escaped me at the time, but she said that soon after the Colonel's death another gentleman called and took her mistress out to dinner. I was so busy thinking about the colonel that I slipped the significance of that statement. It must have been you, Mr. Bruce." "So it seems."