The old man bowed and went out.

Meanwhile, Mr. Slater had exchanged some words with the two
officials, and now approached me with an expression of extreme
consideration. They were about to excuse me from further
participation in this informal inquiry. This I saw before he
spoke. Of course they were right. But I should greatly have
preferred to stay where I was till George came back.

However, I met him for an instant in the hall before I took the
elevator, and later I heard in a round-about way what Jim and
some others about the house had to say of Mr. Brotherson.

He was an habitue of the hotel, to the extent of dining once or
twice a week in the cafe, and smoking, afterwards, in the public
lobby. When he was in the mood for talk, he would draw an
ever-enlarging group about him, but at other times he would be
seen sitting quite alone and morosely indifferent to all who
approached him. There was no mystery about his business. He was
an inventor, with one or two valuable patents already on the market.
But this was not his only interest. He was an all round sort of
man, moody but brilliant in many ways--a character which at once
attracted and repelled, odd in that he seemed to set little store
by his good looks, yet was most careful to dress himself in a way
to show them off to advantage. If he had means beyond the ordinary
no one knew it, nor could any man say that he had not. On all
personal matters he was very close-mouthed, though he would talk
about other men's riches in a way to show that he cherished some
very extreme views.