"Yes, sir," resumed the fat lady. "I nearly swounded, and I couldn't feel happy no more until I'd made a clean breast of it all to Milcher. And I was setting off for Milcher when it struck me all of a heap as I'd promised the young lady with the turned-up nose as I wouldn't say nothing about the keys to nobody. It was very awkward for me, sir, me being converted and anxious to do right, and not knowing which was right and which was wrong. But a promise is a promise whether you're converted or not--that I do hold. Anyhow I says to myself I must see Milcher and tell him the clock hadn't struck eleven, and I prayed as hard as I could for heavenly guidance, and I was just coming down the Square on my way to Milcher's when who should I see get out of a taxi and run into this house but that young lady and her young man. I said in my haste that was an answer to prayer, sir, but I'm not so sure now as I wasn't presuming too much. I could see there was something swanky a-going on here and I said to myself, 'That young lady's gone in. She'll come out again; she's one of the gues's, she is,' I said, 'and him too, and I'll wait till she does come out and then I'll catch her and have it out with her even if it means policemen.' And the area-gate being unfastened, I slipped down the area-steps, sir, with my eye on the front-door. And that was what did me. I had to sit down on the stone steps, sir, because of my varicose veins and then one of the servants comes in _from_ the street, sir, and I more like dropped down the area-steps, sir, than walked, sir, and hid between two dustbins, and when the coast was clear I went up again and found gate locked and nothing doing. And it's as true as I'm standing here--sitting, I should say." Mr. Prohack paused, collecting himself, determined to keep his nerve through everything. Then he said: "When did the mysterious young lady borrow the keys from you?" "Last night, sir, I mean the night before last." "And where are the keys now?" "Milcher's got 'em, sir. I lay he's up in the tower by this time, a-worrying over that clock. It'll be in the papers--you see if it isn't, sir." "And he's got no idea that you ever lent the keys?" "That he has not, sir. And the question is: must I tell him?" "What exactly are the relations between you and Mr. Milcher?" "Well, sir, he's a bit dotty about me, as you might say. And he's going to marry me. So he says, and I believe him." And Mr. Prohack reflected, impressed by the wonder of existence: "This woman too has charm for somebody, who looks on her as the most appetising morsel on earth."