He glanced at his watch.

It was barely twenty minutes past four.

For a moment he hesitated.

Then he strolled on, and, turning at the gate of an adjoining cottage, the nearest to the schools of a little unlovely row, he tried the latch, found it yield to his touch, and stepped inside.

He closed the door behind him and turned, with a little weary sigh of content, towards a large easy-chair drawn up in front of the fire.