He would have been a sharp man who would have recognized in the dignified-looking clergyman who drove up in a hansom to 154, Great Chesterton Street, half-an-hour later, Simon Carne, who had attended the committee meeting of the Canary Island Relief Fund that afternoon. As he alighted he looked up, and saw that all the blinds were drawn down, and that there were evident signs that Death had laid his finger on the house. Having dismissed his cab he rang the bell, and when the door was opened entered the house. The butler who admitted him had been prepared for coming. He bowed respectfully, and conducted him into the drawing-room. There he found an intensely respectable lady, attired in black silk, seated beside the window. "Go upstairs," he said peremptorily, "and remain in the room above this until you are told to come down. Be careful not to let yourself be seen. As soon as it gets dark to-night you can leave the house, but not till then. Before you go the money promised you will be paid. Now be off upstairs, and make sure that some of the neighbors catch sight of you." Ten minutes later a man, who might have been a retired military officer, and who was dressed in the deepest black, drove up, and was admitted to the house. Though no one would have recognized him, Carne addressed him at once as "Belton." "What have you arranged about the train?" he asked, as soon as they were in the drawing-room together. "I have settled that it shall be ready to start for Southampton punctually at seven o’clock," the other answered. "And what about the hearse?" "It will be here at a quarter to seven, without fail." "Very good; we will have the corpse ready meanwhile. Now, before you do anything else, have the two lower blinds in the front room drawn up. If he thinks there is trouble in the house he may take fright, and we must not scare our bird away after all the bother we have had to lure him here." For the next hour they were busily engaged perfecting their arrangements. These were scarcely completed before a gorgeous landau drove up to the house, and Belton reported that the footman had alighted and was ascending the steps. "Let his lordship be shown into the drawing-room," said Simon Carne, "and as soon as he is there do you, Belton, wait at the door. I’ll call you when I want you." Carne went into the drawing-room and set the door ajar. As he did so he heard the footman inquire whether Mrs. O’Halloran was at home, and whether she would see his master. The butler answered in the affirmative, and a few moments later the Marquis ascended the steps. "Will you be pleased to step this way my lord," said the servant. "My mistress is expecting you, and will see you at once." When he entered the drawing-room he discovered the same portly, dignified clergyman whom the neighbors had seen enter the house an hour or so before, standing before the fireplace.