It was simply to request the business address of her late husband, with the name and address of any partner or other business man who had seen much of him in the City.

If the telegram were not intercepted, Langholm calculated that he should have his reply in a couple of hours, and one came early in the forenoon:-- "Shared office 2 Adam's Court Old Broad Street with a Mr.Crofts his friend but not mine Rachel Steel." Langholm looked first at the end, and was thankful to see that the reply was from Rachel herself.

But the penultimate clause introduced a complication.

It must have some meaning.

It would scarcely be a wholly irrelevant expression of dislike.