DINNER 161

XV. A NEW CLUE 172

XVI. SYLVIA'S THEORY 185

XVII. HURD'S INFORMATION 196

XVIII. AT CHRISTCHURCH, HANTS 208

XIX. CAPTAIN JESSOP 219

XX. PART OF THE TRUTH 228

XXI. MISS QIAN'S PARTY 241

XXII. FURTHER EVIDENCE 254

XXIII. WHAT PASH SAID 266

XXIV. MRS. KRILL AT BAY 278

XXV. A CRUEL WOMAN 291

XXVI. A FINAL EXPLANATION 306

CHAPTER I

DON QUIXOTE IN LONDON

Simon Beecot was a country gentleman with a small income, a small estate
and a mind considerably smaller than either. He dwelt at Wargrove in
Essex and spent his idle hours--of which he possessed a daily and
nightly twenty-four--in snarling at his faded wife and in snapping
between whiles at his son. Mrs. Beecot, having been bullied into old age
long before her time, accepted sour looks and hard words as necessary to
God's providence, but Paul, a fiery youth, resented useless nagging. He
owned more brain-power than his progenitor, and to this favoring of
Nature paterfamilias naturally objected. Paul also desired fame, which
was likewise a crime in the fire-side tyrant's eyes.

As there were no other children Paul was heir to the Beecot acres,
therefore their present proprietor suggested that his son should wait
with idle hands for the falling in of the heritage. In plain words, Mr.
Beecot, coming of a long line of middle-class loafers, wished his son to
be a loafer also. Again, when Mrs. Beecot retired to a tearful rest, her
bully found Paul a useful person on whom to expend his spleen. Should
this whipping-boy leave, Mr. Beecot would have to forego this enjoyment,
as servants object to being sworn at without cause. For years Mr.
Beecot indulged in bouts of bad temper, till Paul, finding twenty-five
too dignified an age to tolerate abuse, announced his intention of
storming London as a scribbler.

The parents objected in detail. Mrs. Beecot, after her kind, dissolved
in tears, an