"No," I laughed. "Not at all. It is merely private curiosity--over-- well, over a little matter of business. I'm a business man--not a policeman." "Well," he said, "there's 'Arry Laking, what keeps the gate of the Crystal Palace grounds in Palace Park Road. 'E's their cook's brother. 'E'd tell you something, for 'e often goes there when the family are out." "Where's Palace Park Road?" "Go up to the front of the Palace and keep round to the left till you come to the gate. It's almost the other side of the grounds." I acted upon his suggestion, and after walking some distance I came to the turnstile in the wall dividing the Palace grounds from the road, and there I found a middle-aged man in uniform idling over the evening paper, for that gate was little used, save by season-ticket holders. On inquiry I discovered that he was the man of whom I was in search, and after a little judicious greasing of the palm I induced him to tell me what he knew of his sister's master and mistress. "Mr Parham is a wholesale jeweller in the city," he said. "He often goes abroad for weeks at a time to buy. His wife is young, but Annie tells me she leads a very lonely life. They're a wealthy, but an unhappy pair, that's my opinion. Yet they know all the best people in Sydenham, and Mr Parham gives grand at-homes and dinner-parties." "She's unhappy, you say," I ventured, recollecting the curious scene I had witnessed at the instant of lowering the blinds. "Yes. Annie has overheard their quarrels. The master, she says, has such a hold over the mistress that she dare not call her soul her own. There was a scene between them about three weeks ago. They quarrelled at the dinner-table, and Mrs Parham left the room, went upstairs, wrote a letter and tried to commit suicide by drinking some sublimate. Her maid got hold of the letter, and then succeeded in saving her mistress's life, for fortunately the solution wasn't strong enough. But it made her very ill, and she was in bed a week, while her husband took himself off, and never inquired after her. The servants all pity poor little Mrs Parham, and say that her husband's a brute to her. There was another terrible row once, when her brother called and overheard Mr Parham threaten her in the next room. They say that the two men came to blows, and that he gave Parham a thorough good hiding, which he richly deserved. Mrs Parham's brother is not a fellow to be trifled with, they say, for Parham had to plead for his life. Afterwards, the beaten dog vowed vengeance, and the poor wife had a terrible time of it." "A rather unhappy household," I remarked. "Very. Annie tells me a lot. She wouldn't stay there--nor would any of the servants--only the wages are so good." I saw that the man knew more than he cared to divulge. He was no friend of Parham's, and was certainly on the side of the ill-used wife. "Is Parham young or old?"