umber forty-seven--you
know.'

'Of course I know, dear; but what can puzzle you about him? He seems to
me the most simple and charming old gentleman I have seen in this house
for a long time.'

'Old gentleman,' Paulo said, with a smile. 'I fancy how much he would
like to be described in that sort of way, and by a handsome girl, too!
He don't think he is an old gentleman, you may be sure.'

'Why, father, he is almost as old as you; he must be fifty years old at
least--more than that.'

'So you consider me quite an old party?' Paulo said, with a smile.

'I consider you an old darling,' his daughter answered, giving him a
fervent embrace--they were alone in the corridor--and Paulo seemed quite
contented.

'But now,' he said, releasing himself from the prolonged osculation,
'about this Captain Sarrasin?'

'Yes, dear, about him. Only what about him?'

'Well, that's exactly what I want to know. I don't quite see what he's
up to. What does he have a room in this hotel for?'

'I suppose because he thinks it is a very nice hotel--and so it is,
dear, thanks to you.'

'Yes, that's all right enough,' Paulo said, a little dissatisfied; the
personal compliment did not charm away his discomfort in this instance,
as the embrace had done in the other.

'I don't see where your trouble comes in, dear.'

'Well, you see, I have ascertained that this Captain Sarrasin is a
married man, and that he has a house where he and his wife live down
Clapham way,' and Paulo made a jerk with his hand as if to designate to
his daughter the precise geographical situation of Captain Sarrasin's
abode. 'But he sleeps here many nights, and he is here most of the day,
and he gets his letters here, and all sorts of people come to see him
here.'

'I suppose, dear, he has business to do, and it wouldn't be quite
convenient for people to go out and see him in Clapham.'

'Why, my little girl, if it comes to that, it would be almost as
convenient for people--City people for instance--to go to Clapham as to
come here.'

'Dear, that depends on what part of Clapham he lives in. You see we are
just next to a station here, and in parts of Clapham they are two miles
off anything of the kind. Besides, all people don't come from the City,
do they?'

'Business people do,' Mr. Paulo replied sententiously.

'But the people I see coming after Captain Sarrasin are not one little
bit like City people.'

'Precisely,' her father caught her up; 'there you ha