d look, as if it occurred to him, dimly
and afar off, that this might by possibility be a cool way of treating
the subject.

'All the circumstances after a murder,' said the guest soliloquising,
'must be dreadfully unpleasant--so much bustle and disturbance--no
repose--a constant dwelling upon one subject--and the running in and
out, and up and down stairs, intolerable. I wouldn't have such a thing
happen to anybody I was nearly interested in, on any account. 'Twould
be enough to wear one's life out.--You were going to say, friend--' he
added, turning to John again.

'Only that Mrs Rudge lives on a little pension from the family, and that
Barnaby's as free of the house as any cat or dog about it,' answered
John. 'Shall he do your errand, sir?'

'Oh yes,' replied the guest. 'Oh certainly. Let him do it by all means.
Please to bring him here that I may charge him to be quick. If he
objects to come you may tell him it's Mr Chester. He will remember my
name, I dare say.'

John was so very much astonished to find who his visitor was, that he
could express no astonishment at all, by looks or otherwise, but left
the room as if he were in the most placid and imperturbable of all
possible conditions. It has been reported that when he got downstairs,
he looked steadily at the boiler for ten minutes by the clock, and all
that time never once left off shaking his head; for which statement
there would seem to be some ground of truth and feasibility, inasmuch
as that interval of time did certainly elapse, before he returned with
Barnaby to the guest's apartment.

'Come hither, lad,' said Mr Chester. 'You know Mr Geoffrey Haredale?'

Barnaby laughed, and looked at the landlord as though he would say,
'You hear him?' John, who was greatly shocked at this breach of decorum,
clapped his finger to his nose, and shook his head in mute remonstrance.

'He knows him, sir,' said John, frowning aside at Barnaby, 'as well as
you or I do.'

'I haven't the pleasure of much acquaintance with the gentleman,'
returned his guest. 'YOU may have. Limit the comparison to yourself, my
friend.'

Although this was said with the same easy affability, and the same
smile, John felt himself put down, and laying the indignity at Barnaby's
door, determined to kick his raven, on the very first opportunity.

'Give that,' said the guest, who had by this time sealed the note, and
who beckoned his messenger towards him as he spoke, 'into Mr Haredale's
own