"I suppose she'll be quite safe going about alone?" said Colin. "People know she's working for the doctor?" "Lor' love yer, yus," ejaculated Mr. Higgins. "No one wouldn't interfere with 'er, not round 'ere. This ain't the West End. We knows 'ow to be'ave ourselves in Shadwell." "I'm just going along to the surgery now," said Colin. "I'll tell her some of the nice things you've been saying about her." "You do," was the answer. "An' you can add, with my best respecks, mister, that if ever she'd honour this 'ouse by droppin' in and takin' a cup o' tea, there'd be no prouder man than Bill 'Iggins, not in the 'ole of London." Five minutes later, with a pleasant tingle of anticipation in his heart, Colin mounted the steps of Mark's residence and jerked briskly at the bell. The door was opened by Martha Jane, the fat, grubby-faced little maid-of-all-work, who welcomed him with the grin of an old acquaintance. "You'll find 'em hupstairs in the study," she announced, in answer to his inquiry. "I know they're expectin' you, 'cos the doctor told me not to bring tea till you came." "Well, here I am," said Colin. "Is there anything good to eat?" "I'm makin' scones," replied Martha Jane. "Some o' them yaller ones, wot you gen'rally seems to fancy." Colin stepped inside and deposited Mark's umbrella in the hat stand. "You push off and continue the good work," he remarked. "I'll find my own way up." Still grinning, Martha Jane closed the front door and shuffled along the passage toward the kitchen. Just as she disappeared there was a sound on the landing above and Mark's spectacled face protruded itself over the banisters. "You've been a devil of a time coming," he observed. "We were beginning to think you must have had a breakdown." "I like that!" retorted Colin, struggling out of his overcoat. "Here have I been chasing all round London after your infernal umbrella----" "Oh, you've got it, have you?" interrupted Mark. "That's topping. You don't know how deeply indebted I am to you." "Yes, I do," said Colin. "Exactly half-a-crown--what I had to give the cabman as a reward for his honesty." Nancy's face appeared suddenly beside that of her employer and smiled down at him in friendly welcome. "Please don't start quarrelling about money," she said pathetically. "I'm simply dying for a cup of tea." There seemed to be something strangely familiar and attractive to Colin in the mere sound of her voice, and, running lightly up the staircase, he pressed both their hands in a simultaneous greeting. "I'm so sorry," he exclaimed. "I was forgetting the brutal way in which Mark always treats his staff. I suppose he has been working you to death and half starving you at the same time." "Of course I have," declared Mark. "Look at her worn and haggard appearance." "Well, we haven't been exactly idle," admitted Nancy, laughing. "All the same, I think I am bearing up pretty well."