"Then how do you know about his rooms?"

"Ah, that's another matter. I have been three times in his
rooms, twice waiting for him under different pretexts and leaving
before he came. Once--well, I can hardly tell about the once to
an official detective. It was on the last occasion that I took
the liberty of running over his papers--with the most unexpected
results."

"You found something compromising?"

"Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, you have
now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very
wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried. His
younger brother is a station master in the west of England. His
chair is worth seven hundred a year. And he owns a Greuze."

"Well?"

"Surely the inference is plain."

"You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it in
an illegal fashion?"

"Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so--dozens
of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of
the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I
only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter within the
range of your own observation."