CHAPTER VII.
How did Eve Madeley contrive to lead this life of leisure and amusement?
The question occupied Hilliard well on into the small hours; he could hit upon no explanation which had the least plausibility.
Was she engaged to be married to the man who met her at the Exhibition?
Her behaviour in his company by no means supported such a surmise; yet there must be something more than ordinary acquaintance between the two.
Might not Patty Ringrose be able and willing to solve for him the riddle of Eve's existence?
But he had no idea where Patty lived.

He recalled her words in Gower Street: "You _are_ going it, Eve!" and they stirred miserable doubts; yet something more than mere hope inclined him to believe that the girl's life was innocent.

Her look, her talk reassured him; so did her friendship with such a person as the ingenuous Patty.

On learning that he dwelt close by her she gave no sign of an uneasy conscience.
In any case, the contrast between her actual life and that suggested by Mrs.Brewer's talk about her was singular enough.

It supplied him with a problem of which the interest would not easily be exhausted.