n. This was not
surprising, of course, under the circumstances. I had met more than one
man and woman in those halls who had worn the same look; but none of
them had put up a sign on his door that he had left for New York and
would not be back till 6:30, and then changed his mind so suddenly that
he was back in the tenement at three, sharing the curiosity and the
terrors of its horrified inmates.

"But the discovery, while possibly suggestive, was not of so pressing a
nature as to demand instant action; and more immediate duties coming up,
I let the matter slip from my mind, to be brought up again the next day,
you may well believe, when all the circumstances of the death at the
Clermont came to light and I found myself confronted by a problem very
nearly the counterpart of the one then occupying me.

"But I did not see any real connection between the two cases, until, in
my hunt for Mr. Brotherson, I came upon the following facts: that he was
not always the gentleman he appeared: that the apartment in which he was
supposed to live was not his own but a friend's; and that he was only
there by spells. When he was there, he dressed like a prince and it was
while so clothed he ate his meals in the cafe of the Hotel Clermont.

"But there were times when he had been seen to leave this apartment in a
very different garb, and while there was no one to insinuate that he was
slack in paying his debts or was given to dissipation or any overt vice,
it was generally conceded by such as casually knew him, that there was
a mysterious side to his life which no one understood. His friend--a
seemingly candid and open-minded gentleman--explained these
contradictions by saying that Mr. Brotherson was a humanitarian and
spent much of his time in the slums. That while so engaged he naturally
dressed to suit the occasion, and if he was to be criticised at all,
it was for his zeal which often led him to extremes and kept him to his
task for days, during which time none of his up-town friends saw him.
Then this enthusiastic gentleman called him the great intellectual light
of the day, and--well, if ever I want a character I shall take pains to
insinuate myself into the good graces of this Mr. Conway.

"Of Brotherson himself I saw nothing. He had come to Mr. Conway's
apartment the night before--the night of Miss Challoner's death, you
understand but had remained only long enough to change his clothes.
Where he went afterwards is unknown to M