"About that hat. I've brought you the three-an'-six." He held out the coins in his palm. "You can't have it just now. I'm in a hurry." "So I see," said Mr Philp deliberately, not budging from the gate. "It don't improve a hat as a rule." "What d'ye mean?" "Perspiration works through the linin'. I've seen hats ruined that way." "Very well, then: we'll call the bargain off. The fact is, I'd forgot about it; and you can't very well have the hat now. 'Tis my only one, an'--well the fact is, I'm due to pay a call." "Where?" "I don't see as 'tis any business o' yours," answered Captain Cai with vexation; "but, if you want to know, I've to call on my landlady, Mrs Bosenna." "Is that where you're hurryin' just now?" "Well, no: not at this moment," Captain Cai had to confess. "Where, then?" "Oh, look here--" "You needn't tell, if you don't want to. But _I'm_ goin' to a funeral at eleven o'clock," said Mr Philp. "Eleven A.M.," he added pointedly. "Not that I hold with mornin' funerals in a general way: but the corpse is old Mrs Wedlake, and I wasn't consulted." "Relative?" asked Captain Cai. "No relation at all; though I don't see as it matters." Mr Philp was cheerful but obdurate. "A bargain's a bargain, as I take it." "That fact is--" "_And_ a man's word ought to be good as his bond. Leastways that's how I look at it." "Here, take the darned thing!" exclaimed Captain Cai. His action, however, was less impulsive than his speech: he removed the hat carefully, lowering his head and clutching the brim between both hands. A small parcel lay inside. "What's that?" asked Mr Philp. "It's--it's a cuff," Captain Cai admitted. "Belongs to the Widow Bosenna, I shouldn't wonder?" Mr Philp hazarded with massive gravity. "It's the sort o' thing a woman wears now-a-days when she've lost her husband. I follows the fashions in my distant way." He paused and corrected himself carefully--"_Them sort._" "I thought--it occurred to me--as it might be the handiest way of returnin' the thing." "It seems early days to be carryin' that sort of article around in the crown o' your hat. Dangerous, too, if you use hair-oil. But you don't. I took notice that you said 'no' yesterday when Toy offered to rub something into your hair. Now that's always a temptation with me, there bein' no extra charge. . . . Did she give it to you?" "Who? . . . Mrs Bosenna? No, she left it behind here." "When?" "Yesterday evening." "What was she doin' here, yesterday evenin', to want to take off her cuffs?" "If you must know, she was planting roses." "What? In April? . . . You mustn't think I'm curious." "Not at all," Captain Cai agreed grimly. "Nice little place you've pitched on here, I must say." Mr Philp changed his tone to one of extreme affability. "There's not a prettier little nest in all Troy than these two cottages. And which of the pair might be _your_ choice?" "It's not quite decided."