Indeed, had it not been that I had promised Miss Kitwater to take up the case, and that I did not want to disappoint her, I believe I should have abandoned it there and then, out of sheer disgust.

A little later our hostess proposed that we should adjourn to the house, as it was neatly lunch-time.

We did so, and I was shown to a pretty bedroom to wash my hands.

It was a charming apartment, redolent of the country, smelling of lavender, and after London, as fresh as a glimpse of a new life.

I looked about me, took in the cleanliness of everything, and contrasted it with my own dingy apartments at Rickford's Hotel, where the view from the window was not of meadows and breezy uplands, but of red roofs, chimney-pots, and constantly revolving cowls.