night, separated and made off towards Tube and bus. The working day
was ended. Society was dressing for dinner.

Gray was about to enter the cab which awaited him, and his
fresh-colored, boyish face wore an expression of eager expectancy,
which must have betrayed the fact to an experienced beholder that he
was hurrying to keep an agreeable appointment. Then, his hand resting
on the handle of the cab-door, this expression suddenly changed to one
of alert suspicion.

A tall, dark man, accompanied by a woman muffled in grey furs and
wearing a silk scarf over her hair, had passed on foot along the
opposite side of the street. Gray had seen them through the cab
windows.

His smooth brow wrinkled and his mouth tightened to a thin straight
line beneath the fair "regulation" moustache. He fumbled under his
overcoat for loose silver, drew out a handful and paid off the
taximan.

Sometimes walking in the gutter in order to avoid the throngs upon the
pavement, regardless of the fact that his glossy dress-boots were
becoming spattered with mud, Gray hurried off in pursuit of the pair.
Twenty yards ahead he overtook them, as they were on the point of
passing a picture dealer's window, from which yellow light streamed
forth into the humid dusk. They were walking slowly, and Gray stopped
in front of them.

"Hello, you two!" he cried. "Where are you off to? I was on my way to
call for you, Rita."