Things were worrying me, as things will if one is not feeling quite the thing. I was almost disposed to tell myself that I had made a mistake in coming to England. After all, I should have done better by remaining on the other side. Here there were so many things which were against me--in England there is no mercy for the woman that repenteth. And getting myself mixed up in this business was scarcely a promising beginning. The arrival of my friend, the gentleman, acted as a pick-me-up. It did a poor, nerveless creature good to gaze on so vivid a representative of sunshine and of strength. I was leaning back upon a couch when he came in--somehow his knocking at the door had set all my pulses twittering. It was with an effort I looked up and met his eyes. He looked so well in evening dress--it was the first time I had seen him in it. When one has lived for years with savages one notices such little things. "It is good of you to come to cheer me. I am so much in want of being cheered." He laughed, retaining my hand for a minute in his. "The want is common to us both. I am in want of being cheered as much as you--we will cheer each other." He sat down on a little easy-chair, which he drew in front of me. "I have only just returned from Devonshire, which is like coming from the sunshine into the night." "Have you been there alone?" "I have been staying with a friend--Sir Haselton Jardine." Sir Haselton Jardine? Where, quite recently, had I heard that name? Of course! It was the name of the famous counsel. I had seen it stated in that day's paper that he was to be retained by the Crown to prosecute Tommy. I wondered if that item of news had come Mr. Townsend's way. "Sir Haselton Jardine? Is that the lawyer?" "Yes. I suppose he's the greatest barrister at the Bar just now." "Didn't I see that he was going to have something to do with this murder there's all the stir about?" I had to let it out--I could not help it. So far as any effect which the allusion had upon my visitor was concerned I need not have tried. He never turned a hair. I was watching the white hands, which were resting on his knee. Not a muscle quivered. He replied to my question without a moment's hesitation, and in his ordinary tone of voice. "He tells me that he's going to prosecute. He seems rather eager about the business, too. If the chap is guilty I don't fancy Jardine will let him slip." I was still for a moment. I looked into my visitor's eyes with wonder, and--I don't mind owning it--with admiration. This was the sort of man it was worth one's while to know--he was a man. "Don't you think the affair is rather an odd one?" "Very odd, indeed--and not the least odd part of it is that I know this fellow Tennant very well." "No!" I was startled. "I do. He's a stockbroker. He's done a good deal of business for me. Unless I am mistaken, he is, or was, almost a neighbour of yours."