The cab stopped at the third cottage; Selina sat back in the seat and pulled down her veil, in case Mrs.Bostock should recognise her; Sir Tancred got down and knocked at the door.

A long-drawn snore was the only answer.

He hammered on the door with his cane till he heard the grating of a chair on a brick floor; the door opened, and a blowsy, red-faced woman peered at him with blinking eyes.
"You have a little boy here in your charge.

I've come for him," said Sir Tancred.
The woman only blinked at him stupidly.
"I've come for the little boy," said Sir Tancred loudly.
A look of drunken cunning stole into the woman's muddled face.

She said thickly, "There ain't no lil boy 'ere," and tried to shut the door.
Sir Tancred thrust it open with a vigour which sent her staggering into a chair, and stepped into the squalid, reeking room.