is a small sitting-room and bedroom, and all complete, at the top
of the house."

"Well?"

"He said, 'I'll pay you five pounds a week if I can have it on my
own terms.' I'm a poor woman, sir, and Mr. Warren earns little,
and the money meant much to me. He took out a ten-pound note,
and he held it out to me then and there. 'You can have the same
every fortnight for a long time to come if you keep the terms,'
he said. 'If not, I'll have no more to do with you.'

"What were the terms?"

"Well, sir, they were that he was to have a key of the house.
That was all right. Lodgers often have them. Also, that he was
to be left entirely to himself and never, upon any excuse, to be
disturbed."

"Nothing wonderful in that, surely?"

"Not in reason, sir. But this is out of all reason. He has been
there for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the girl
has once set eyes upon him. We can hear that quick step of his
pacing up and down, up and down, night, morning, and noon; but
except on that first night he had never once gone out of the
house."

"Oh, he went out the first night, did he?"