How long we lingered there upon the terrace I know not, but it was late ere we re-entered the drawing-room. Who among those assembled guests would have dreamt the truth--we were man and wife! As I went upstairs I found a letter lying upon the hall table in the place where the guests' letters were placed. Barton had, I suppose, driven into Corsham and brought with him the mail which would, in the usual course, have been delivered on the following morning. The note was from Hoefer, a couple of awkwardly scribbled lines asking me to come and see him without a moment's delay. Eager to hear whether the queer old fellow had made any discovery, I departed next morning by the eight o'clock express for London, having left a note with Beryl's maid explaining the cause of my sudden journey, and soon after eleven was seated with the old German in his lofty laboratory. The table was, as usual, filled with various contrivances-- bottles of liquids and test-tubes containing fluids of various hues-- while before him, as I entered, a small tube containing a bright blue liquid was bubbling over the spirit-lamp, the heat causing the colour to gradually fade. "Ah, my frient," he said, with his strong accent, holding out his big fat hand encased in a stout leather glove, "I am glad you have come-- very glad. It has been a long search, but I haf discovered something, after all. You see these?"--and he indicated his formidable array of retorts and test-tubes. "Well, I have been investigating at Gloucester Square, and have found the affair much more extraordinary than I believed." "And you have discovered the truth?" I demanded. "Yes," he responded, turning down the flame of the lamp and bending attentively to the bubbling fluid from which all colour had disappeared while I had been watching. "Shall I relate to you the course of my investigations?" "Do. I am all attention."