Dowker entered the shop and asked to see Madame Rêne, to whose presence he was conducted at once, for the detective was well-known there, haying been frequently employed by Madame in missions of a delicate nature, principally concerning ladies of high rank and diamonds. Madame herself was short and stout, with a thoroughly English face, and indeed, she had been born within the sound of Bow Bells, but took her French name for trade purposes. Her voice was sharp and shrill, and her black eyes bold and piercing--a thorough woman of business, who knew the value of money and time, so wasted neither. "Well, Mr. Dowker," said Madame when the detective had taken his seat in her private office and closed the door, "what is the matter now? I was just going to send for you." "What about?" asked Dowker with a sigh, "more trouble?" "Yes--Lady Balscombe's run away with Lord Calliston, and she owes me a lot of money, so I want to know the chances of getting paid." "Any security?" inquired the detective. "Oh, yes--I'm not such a fool as to lend ladies money without security," said Madame with a shrill laugh. "I've got a diamond necklace, but I think it belongs to Sir Rupert Balscombe--part of the family jewels--I suppose I'd better go and see him." "I think that would be the wisest plan." "Humph!" sniffed the lady, frowning, "I don't know. On the one hand he may pay me my money and redeem the necklace, on the other he may kick up a row, and I don't want my dealings in this way made public. I'd have a whole army of husbands down on me--just like men--they go to the Jews themselves to get ready money, and when their wives do a bit of borrowing with their milliners, they make a fuss." "Why not sell the necklace?" "That's what I'm going to do as soon as I hear from Lady Balscombe. I suppose she'll be divorced, and marry Calliston--more fool she, for he's a scamp--then she'll want to redeem the necklace quietly, but I don't know where to write to her. Where have they gone to?" "I hear in a yacht to the Azores," said Dowker, who knew everything; "they'll turn up again I've no doubt--then you can see her." "What an idiot she was to give up such a fair position!" said Madame, who looked at the whole affair from a purely worldly point of view. "She was nobody when Sir Rupert picked her up, and he gave her everything--she made ducks and drakes of his money--they fought, and the result is she's gone off with Calliston--a man who is the biggest scamp in town." "Yes, I know, got a little crib in St. John's Wood, said Dowker, who had no hesitation in talking plainly to this woman, who knew as much about fast life as he did. "So I hear--never saw his mistress, but hear she's a beautiful woman--there will be a row when she hears his latest escapade; but he'll get tired of Lady Balscombe and go back to the St. John's Wood establishment--they always do."