"There is only one way of finding that out," said Dowker, wrapping up the hat and rising to his feet. "And that is?" "To make inquiries at Cleopatra Villa. Good-day," and the detective went out, leaving Madame transfixed with astonishment. "Humph," she said at length. "I wonder if Lord Calliston's got anything to do with this murder." CHAPTER IV. THE ST. JOHN'S WOOD ESTABLISHMENT. Cleopatra Villa was a pleasant house and a very expensive one, as Lord Calliston found to his cost. But then the presiding deity, by name Lena Sarschine, was very beautiful, and insisted upon having her dwelling fitted up in a corresponding manner, so Calliston gave way, and spent a small fortune on this bijou residence. Dowker knew a good many of these little paradises with their worldly-wise Eves, the existence of whom was not supposed to be known to the polite world, so he felt quite at ease when upon ringing the bell he was admitted to the garden by a solemn-looking man servant. He was well acquainted with Calliston's life both public and private--neither side being very reputable--but then, with such advantages of wrong doing as the world now offers, 'tis hard to be virtuous. Calliston had come into the title whilst in his childhood, and, the estate having been well looked after during his minority, he found plenty of money to spend when he came of age, and he certainly did spend it. Horse-racing and yachting were his two principal pleasures, but curiously enough his name was never mixed up with any well-known woman, and few of his friends knew except by hearsay of the divinity who dwelt in Cleopatra Villa. Calliston had fallen in love with her down in the country some years before, and bringing her up to town installed her in the bijou residence, which she rarely left. Occasionally she went to the theatre, and sometimes drove in the Park, but at such rare intervals that few people knew who she was. Calliston was very jealous of her and seldom asked his friends to supper, but she was reported by the few who had been thus honoured to be a very beautiful woman with charming manners. The general opinion was that he would end up by marrying her, when his entanglement with Lady Balscombe became known, and henceforward he was seen more by that lady's side than in the neighbourhood of St. John's Wood. Dowker, from some mysterious source only known to himself, was cognisant of all this, and had now come down to discover what connection the establishment of St. John's Wood had with the murder in Jermyn Street.