"No," he said, decisively. "Monday, Wednesday, Saturday,--it is all the same. The only thing that changes not is the man and his dress. Always the same broadcloth frock-coat and the same high hat and the same seals at the heavy watch-chain. He is a rich man, that sees itself." I wrinkled my brow and tugged the ends of my moustache in the effort to find a solution. The proprietor tugged the ends of his own moustache in sympathetic silence. "Does he always slink out if anybody sits down opposite to him?" I inquired again. "On the contrary. He talks and chats quite freely with his neighbors when there are any. I have seen his countenance light up when a man has come to seat himself next to him." "Then to-day is the first time he has behaved so strangely?" "Absolutely." Again I was silent. I looked at myself curiously in the cracked mirror. "Do you see anything strange in my appearance?" I asked the proprietor. "Nothing in the world," said the proprietor, shaking his head vigorously. "Nothing in the world," echoed the waiter, emphatically. "Then why does he object to me, when he doesn't object to anybody else?" "Pardon," said the proprietor. "It is, after all, but rarely that a stranger sits at his table. He comes ordinarily so early for his lunch that my clients have not yet arrived, and I have only the honor to serve an accidental customer like yourself." "Ah, then, there is some regularity about the time of day at least?" "Ah, yes, there is that," said the proprietor, reflectively. "But even here there is no hard and fast line. He may be an hour earlier, he may be an hour later." "What a droll of a man!" I said laughing, even as I wondered. "And you have not been able to discover anything about him, though he has given it you in twelve?" "It is not my affair," he repeated, shrugging his shoulders. "You know not his name even?" "How should I know it?" "Ah, very well, you shall see!" I said, buttoning up my coat resolutely and rising to my feet. "You shall see that I will find out everything in once. I, a stranger in London, who love the oceans and the forests better than the cities, I, who know only the secrets of Nature, behold, I will solve you this mystery of humanity." "As monsieur pleases," replied the proprietor. "For me the only question is what monsieur will have for his lunch."