"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir, I will endeavour to remember." He lingered
for a moment as he shook the file of papers level. "I may say, sir,
that I have my eye on a small block of cottage property at Acton. But
even cottage property scarcely seems safe from legislative depredation
now, sir."

The next day Mr. Carrados called on his brokers in the city. It is to
be presumed that he got through his private business quicker than he
expected, for after leaving Austin Friars he continued his journey to
Holloway, where he found Hutchins at home and sitting morosely before
his kitchen fire. Rightly assuming that his luxuriant car would
involve him in a certain amount of public attention in Klondyke
Street, the blind man dismissed it some distance from the house, and
walked the rest of the way, guided by the almost imperceptible touch
of Parkinson's arm.

"Here is a gentleman to see you, father," explained Miss Hutchins, who
had come to the door. She divined the relative positions of the two
visitors at a glance.

"Then why don't you take him into the parlour?" grumbled the
ex-driver. His face was a testimonial of hard work and general
sobriety but at the moment one might hazard from his voice and manner
that he had been drinking earlier in the day.

"I don't think that the gentleman would be impressed by the difference
between our parlour and our kitchen," replied the girl quaintly, "and
it is warmer here."