"T. X. Meredith. He is the most ingenious beggar you could meet.
We were at Caius together, and he is by way of being a great pal
of mine. He is in the Criminal Investigation Department."

Kara nodded. There was the light of interest in his eyes and he
would have pursued the discussion further, but at the moment
dinner was announced.

It was not a particularly cheerful meal because Grace did not as
usual join in the conversation, and it was left to Kara and to her
husband to supply the deficiencies. She was experiencing a
curious sense of depression, a premonition of evil which she could
not define. Again and again in the course of the dinner she took
her mind back to the events of the day to discover the reason for
her unease.

Usually when she adopted this method she came upon the trivial
causes in which apprehension was born, but now she was puzzled to
find that a solution was denied her. Her letters of the morning
had been pleasant, neither the house nor the servants had given
her any trouble. She was well herself, and though she knew John
had a little money trouble, since his unfortunate speculation in
Roumanian gold shares, and she half suspected that he had had to
borrow money to make good his losses, yet his prospects were so
excellent and the success of his last book so promising that she,
probably seeing with a clearer vision the unimportance of those
money worries, was less concerned about the problem than he.

"You will have your coffee in the study, I suppose," said Grace,