to get it back--she said the bills were worth nothing to her or anybody
else, but that she should have liked to keep the box because her husband
gave it her when they were first married, and if he found she had parted
with it, he would be vexed.'

'Did Mrs. Manston, when she called recently with her husband, allude to
this, or inquire for it, or did Mr. Manston?'

'No--and I rather wondered at it. But she seemed to have forgotten
it--indeed, she didn't make any inquiry at all, only standing behind
him, listening to his; and he probably had never been told anything
about it.'

'Whose sale were these articles of hers taken to?'

'Who was the auctioneer? Mr. Halway. His place is the third turning
from the end of that street you see there. Anybody will tell you the
shop--his name is written up.'

Edward went off to follow up his clue with a promptness which was
dictated more by a dogged will to do his utmost than by a hope of
doing much. When he was out of sight, the tall and cloaked man, who had
watched him, came up to the woman's door, with an appearance of being in
breathless haste.

'Has a gentleman been here inquiring about Mrs. Manston?'

'Yes; he's just gone.'

'Dear me! I want him.'

'He's gone to Mr. Halway's.'

'I think I can give him some information upon the subject. Does he pay
pretty liberally?'

'He gave me half-a-crown.'

'That scale will do. I'm a poor man, and will see what my little
contribution to his knowledge will fetch. But, by the way, perhaps you
told him all I know--where she lived before coming to live here?'

'I didn't know where she lived before coming here. O no--I only said
what Mr. Brown had told me. He seemed a nice, gentle young man, or I
shouldn't have been so open as I was.'

'I shall now about catch him at Mr. Halway's,' said the man, and went
away as hastily as he had come.

Edward in the meantime had reached the auction-room. He found some
difficulty, on account of the inertness of those whose only inducement
to an action is a mere wish from another, in getting the information he
stood in need of, but it was at last accorded him. The auctioneer's book
gave the name of Mrs. Higgins, 3 Canley Passage, as the purchaser of the
lot which had included Mrs. Manston's workbox.

Thither Edward went, followed by the man. Four bell pulls, one above the
other like waistcoat-buttons, appeared on the door-post. Edward seized
the first he came to.

'Who did you woant?' said a