It was a chatty interview. The great man was on his agreeable manners, and talked of many things. He made some fatherly enquiries after the welfare of Mr. Hurst; observing that some of them country blades liked their fling when in London, but he fancied young Hurst was tolerably steady. Mr. Brown quietly said he had no reason to suppose him otherwise. "You have been from thirteen to fourteen years with the Greatorexes, I think," remarked the detective. Mr. Brown laughed. "From three to four." "Oh, I made a mistake. And before you came to them?" "With a solicitor, now deceased. Mr. Greatorex can tell you anything of him you wish to know. He had me direct from him." "Me wish to know? Not a bit. Who on earth is it walking about overhead? His boots have been on the go ever since I came in." "It must be Mr. Ollivera. He does walk in his rooms sometimes." "I should say his mind was restless. Thinking always of his brother, they say. It was a curious case, that, take it for all in all. Ever heard the particulars, Mr. Brown?" "Yes, Mr. Greatorex once related them to me. The young men in the office get speaking of it." "Ah, they had all something to do with Counsellor Myers, so to say. Jenner was the clerk in chambers. Hurst's father was the surgeon called in at the death; Yorke was in Port Natal at the time, but his folks knew him. Talkative young fellows, all the lot; like gossip, I'll be bound, better than work. I'll answer that one of 'em does--Mr. Roland Yorke." A smile crossed the manager's face at thought of Roland's work. "When I hear them begin to speak of the late Mr. Ollivera's death, I stop it at once," he remarked. "Jenner is very much given to it, never considering whose office he is in. The name of a man who has committed self-destruction, cannot be pleasant to his relations." "As to self-destruction," spoke Mr. Butterby, with a nod, "I don't say it was that in Ollivera's case. I don't say it was not. There's only two people have held out against it; and they've been obstinate enough in the cause for two thousand. Parson Ollivera, and the young woman in this house, Alletha Rye." "On the other hand," observed the clerk, "some are as positive that he did commit it. Mrs. Jones for one, Mr. Bede Greatorex for another. They possess the same knowledge of the details that the other two do, and are certainly as able of conclusion." Jonas Butterby opened his mouth, as if to let in a whiff of air to his teeth, for he closed it again without speaking. In the heat of argument his usual cautious reticence had for once nearly failed him, and he all but betrayed his private opinion--that Bede Greatorex had grown to suspect Godfrey Pitman. "Who told you that Bede Greatorex holds to that view, Mr. Brown?" "It is well known he does. I have heard him say so myself."