“Ah! that’s better. Now, take her my card, and say that while I will not detain her, my business is very important.” This with a sweet smile that put the flurried maid entirely at her ease.
The girl withdrew, after hesitating for a moment to decide the important question as to whether or not she should close the door in his face.
Another smile, and she did not.
He was thus free to note the luxurious and tasteful air of the general appointments, for the entrance hall usually reveals much of the characteristics of the inmates. Here was every evidence of refinement and wealth. All the display had not been lavished on the drawing-room.
As he waited, conscious of the fact that his colloquy with the servant had been overheard, a lady crossed from one room to the other at the end of the passage. Her smart but simple dress, and the quick scrutiny she gave him, as though discovering his presence accidentally, caused him to believe — rightly, as it transpired — that this was the maid-companion described by his assistant.
Not only had she obviously made her appearance in order to look at him, but the housemaid had carried his message to a different section of the flat.
The girl returned. “My mistress will see you in a few minutes,” she said. “Will you kindly step into the dining-room?”
He followed her, sat down in a position where the strong glare of the electric lamps would fall on any one who stood opposite, and waited developments.
The furniture was solid and appropriate, the carpet rich, and the pictures, engravings for the most part, excellent. This pleasant room, warmed by a cheerful fire, impressed Bruce as a place much used by the household. Books and work-baskets were scattered about, and a piano, littered with music, filled a corner. There were a few photographs of persons and places, but he had not time to examine these before the lady of the house entered.
Her appearance, for some reason inexplicable to the barrister himself, took him by surprise. She was tall, graceful, extremely good-looking, and dressed in a style of quiet elegance. Just the sort of woman one would expect to find in such a well-appointed abode, yet more refined in manner than Bruce, from his knowledge of the world, thought he would meet, judging by the hasty inferences drawn from his subordinate’s report. She was self-possessed, too. With calm tone, and slightly elevated eyebrows, she said:
“You wish to see me, I understand?”
“Yes. Allow me first to apologize for the hour at which I have called.”
“No apology is necessary. But I am going out. Perhaps you will be good enough not to detain me longer than is absolutely necessary.”
She stood between the table and the door. Bruce, who had risen at her entrance, was at the other side of the room. Her words, no less than her attitude, showed that she desired the interview to be brief. But the barrister resolved that he would not be repelled so coolly.
Advancing, with a bow and that fascinating smile of his, he said, pulling forward a chair:
“Won’t you be seated?”
The lady looked at him. She saw a man of fine physique and undoubted good breeding. She hesitated. There was no reason to be rude to him, so she sat down.
Claude drew a chair to the other side of the hearthrug, and commenced:
“I have ventured to seek this interview for the purpose of making some inquiries.”
“I thought so. Are you a policeman?” The words were blurted out impetuously, a trifle complainingly, but Bruce gave no sign of the interest they had for him.
“Good gracious, no,” he cried. “Why should you think that?”
“Because two detectives have been bothering me, and every other person in these mansions, about some mysterious lady who called here two months ago. They don’t know where she called, nor will they state her name; as if any one could possibly know anything about it. So I naturally thought you were on the same errand.”
“Confound that rascal White,” growled he to himself.
But Mrs. Hillmer went on: “If that is not your business, would you mind telling me what it is?”
Now Bruce’s alert brain had been actively engaged during the last few seconds. This woman was not the clever, specious adventuress he had half expected to meet. It seemed more than ever unlikely that she could have any knowledge of Lady Dyke or the causes that led to her disappearance. He was tempted to frame some excuse and take his departure. But the certainty that his missing friend had visited Raleigh Mansions, and the necessity there was for exploiting every line of inquiry, impelled him to adopt this last resource.
“It is not concerning a missing lady, but concerning a missing gentleman that I have come to see you.”
The shot went home.
Why, for the life of him, he could not tell, but his companion was manifestly disturbed at his words.
“Oh,” she said.
Then, after a little pause: “May I ask his name?”
“Certainly. He is known as Mr. Sydney H. Corbett.”
She gave a slight gasp.
“Why do you put it in that way? Is not that his right name?”
“I have reason to believe it is not.”
Mrs. Hillmer was so obviously distressed that Bruce inwardly reviled himself for causing her so much unnecessary suffering. In all probability, the source of her emotion had not the remotest bearing upon his quest.
Then came the pertinent query, after a glance at his card, which she still held in her hand:
“Who are you, Mr. — Mr. Claude Bruce?”
“I am a member of the Bar, of the Inner Temple. My chambers are No. 7 Paper Buildings, and my private residence is given there.”
“And why are you interested in Mr. Sydney Corbett?”
“Ah, in that respect I am at this moment unable to enlighten you.”
“Unable, or unwilling?”
He indulged in a quiet piece of fencing:
“Really, Mrs. Hillmer,” he said, “I am not here as in any sense hostile to you. I merely want some detailed information with regard to this gentleman, information which you may be able to give me. That is all.”
All this time he knew that the woman was scrutinizing him narrowly — trying to weigh him up as it were, not because she feared him, but rather to discover the true motive of his presence.
Personally, he had never faced a more difficult task than this make-believe investigation. He could have laughed at the apparent want of connection between Lady Dyke’s ill-fated visit to Raleigh Mansions and this worrying of a beautiful, pleasant-mannered woman, who was surely neither a principal nor an accomplice in a ghastly crime.
“Well, I suppose I may consider myself in the hands of counsel. Tell me what it is you want to know!” Mrs. Hillmer pouted, with the air of a child about to undergo a scolding.
“Are you acquainted with Mr. Corbett’s present address?” he said.
“No. I have neither seen him nor heard from him since early in November.”
“Can you be more precise about the period?”
“Yes, perhaps.” She arose, took from a drawer in the sideboard a packet of bills — receipted, he observed — searched through them and found the document she sought. “I purchased a few articles about that time,” she explained, “and the account for them is dated November 15. I had not seen my — ” She blushed, became confused,