“Not at all; it has been delightful. I was under the impression you were very busy, otherwise we might have had more of these pleasant evenings together. Does this interesting boy――I hope he will pardon me for not knowing his name?――does he invariably accompany you on your rounds?” “Oh, we’re great pals,” the doctor said, with a rather pumped-up geniality. He pushed Palmer out of the room before him, for Mr. Bradley’s little bow, delivered with his hands clasped behind his back, was quite sufficient indication that they were dismissed. The doctor was conscious that all through he had played a subordinate and rather hopeless part, and that he had played it extremely badly. “You’re right,” he remarked, when they once more found themselves in the street. “The man is certainly insane――I should think dangerously so. I wonder how long he has been like this? At any rate, steps must be taken at once: in fact, I don’t know whether I oughtn’t to warn the people he is with now.” “You saw his face when I got up to draw his shadow? That’s the way he looked when he caught me in the church――only to-night he was a good deal worse. If you hadn’t been there there might have been developments.” “Perhaps too many developments,” said the doctor briefly. “I was ready for him; I was watching him in the mirror.” “I don’t think he’d have given you much time. And at any rate, if you _had_ used your revolver, what would you have felt like afterwards?” “I don’t know. I don’t think I’d have felt a great deal.” “I expect your bark is worse than your bite, Palmer.... Well, I’m coming home with you. I must have a talk with Canon Annesley.” “About this?” “Yes; something will have to be done. The man isn’t safe.” They walked side by side along the road, in the direction of the Glebe, the doctor a good deal worried in more ways than one. “We shouldn’t have gone as we did,” he said at last. “We ought to have managed differently. The worst possible thing was to excite him.” “But if we hadn’t gone we shouldn’t have known. It was a pity he came back so soon.” “I might have found out――found out sufficient at all events――simply by leading him on to talk.... That is, if you had given me a hint. _Your_ method, I’m afraid, was rather drastic. Another thing;――I think you should have told me all you knew. I thought you _had_ done so, this afternoon.” “I did tell you all I knew, sir. This was only a guess――from something Miss Annesley told me Grif had said when he was ill. It was after I had seen you, just before tea this evening, that she told me. And my guess might have been all wrong. I wouldn’t have risked it if I hadn’t seen he knew what we had come about.” “And what do you make of it now?”