ew a quick breath.

'He must be good at spying. Next time I hope he'll find out something
worth talking about.'

Alice was surprised.

'You know about it?'

'Just as much as Rodman, do you understand that?'

'You don't believe?'

She herself had doubts.

'It's nothing to you whether I believe it or not. Just be good enough in
future to mind your own business; you'll have plenty of it before long.
I suppose that's what you brought me here for?'

She made no answer; she was vexed and puzzled.

'Have you anything else to say?'

Alice maintained a stubborn silence.

'Alice, have you anything more to tell me about Adela?'

'No, I haven't.'

'Then you might have spared me the trouble. Tell Rodman with my
compliments that it would be as well for him to keep out of my way.'

He left her.

On quitting the house he walked at a great pace for a quarter of a mile
before he remembered the necessity of taking either train or omnibus.
The latter was at hand, but when he had ridden for ten minutes the
constant stoppages so irritated him that he jumped out and sought a
hansom. Even thus he did not travel fast enough; it seemed an endless
time before the ascent of Pentonville Hill began. He descended a little
distance from his lodgings.

As he was paying the driver another hansom went by; he by chance saw the
occupant, and it was Hubert Eldon. At least he felt convinced of it, and
he was in no mind to balance the possibilities of mistake. The hansom
had come from the street which Mutimer was just entering.

He found Adela engaged in cooking the dinner; she wore an apron, and the
sleeves of her dress were pushed up. As he came into the room she looked
at him with her patient smile; finding that he was in one of his worst
tempers, she said nothing and went on with her work. A coarse cloth
was thrown over the table; on it lay a bowl of vegetables which she was
preparing for the saucepan.

Perhaps it was the sight of her occupation, of the cheerful simplicity
with which she addressed herself to work so unworthy of her; he could
not speak at once as he had meant to. He examined her with eyes of
angry, half foiled suspicion. She had occasion to pass him; he caught
her arm and stayed her before him.

'What has Eldon been doing here?'

She paused and shrank a little.

'Mr. Eldon has not been here.'

He thought her face betrayed a guilty agitation.

'I happen to have met him going away. I think you'd better tell me