When I returned to the outer room, the Italian was still staring,
but not so fixedly or continuously, at the lady. From time to time
his eyes wandered towards a table near which he sat, and which was
just in the gangway or passage by which people must pass into your
presence.

"There was some reason for this, I felt sure, although I did not
understand it immediately.

"Presently I got at the hidden meaning There was a small piece of
paper, rolled up or crumpled up into a ball, lying upon this
table, and the Italian wished, nay, was desperately anxious, to
call the lady's attention to it. If I had had any doubt of this,
it was quite removed after the man had gone into the inner room.
As he left us, he turned his head over his shoulder significantly
and nodded very slightly, but still perceptibly, at the ball of
paper.

"Well, gentlemen, I was now satisfied in my own mind that this was
some artful attempt of his to communicate with the lady, and had
she fallen in with it, I should have immediately informed you,
the proper authorities. But whether from stupidity, dread,
disinclination, a direct, definite refusal to have any dealings
with this man, the lady would not--at any rate did not--pick up
the ball, as she might have done easily when she in her turn
passed the table on her way to your presence.

"I have no doubt it was thrown there for her, and probably you
will agree with me. But it takes two to make a game of this sort,
and the lady would not join. Neither on leaving the room nor on