"But you won't have anything to write to me about," he said, when the written address was handed over. Bottles looked up with a shrewd smile on his freckled face. "The mouse helped the lion, sir, as mother told me, and I may help you." "What do you mean by that? How can you help me?" "Least said is soonest mended, as mother says," retorted Bottles wisely. "And it ain't for nothing as I've read detective stories. I won't give any one the address, sir. I'm yours till death!" and he folded his arms with a noble air. Hench drove away rather bewildered. "The boy is mad," he said. But the boy was not. CHAPTER VI SEEKING TROUBLE It was for two reasons that Hench left The Home of the Muses and vanished--so far as the paying guests were concerned--into the unknown. In the first place, he wished to render Zara's position more easy; in the second he desired to have nothing more to do with Madame Alpenny; and also there was a third and less important reason, which had to do with Cuthbert Spruce. While Owain drove westward in the taxi, he amused himself by surveying his position. With regard to the girl, Hench was beginning to grasp the fact that he really did not love her, or he would have been more moved by her frank confession of love for Bracken. What she had said was quite true, as he now acknowledged. He admired her, and being lonely, wished for a companion, so as to make a centre in life round which he could revolve. It was an odd comparison but a very true one. Any other woman, handsome, kind-hearted and affectionate, would have done as well as Zara to bring about the desired end, and Owain confessed to himself that to propose such a business-like scheme to a girl was rather a cold-blooded way of looking at love. She was--he confessed this also--quite right to refuse him, and to accept the offer of a man who adored her. This being the case, Hench decided that it only remained for him to go away, since his presence would more or less embarrass her, in spite of the brother-and-sister compact. Finally, being very human, Owain felt that it was impossible to stay, and witnessing Bracken triumphing where he had failed. On the whole, therefore, he was well pleased to escape from Bethnal Green, and his feelings suffered very little from the exile.