multitude
of sins even a slight financial connection with the Theater will cover.
He puts various sums of money into the front of the house to gain
unquestioned admission to the back. He has an extraordinary taste for
fantasy, and is always startling his friends with some new eccentricity.
He is not generally considered to be a desirable acquaintance--and
certainly no man in London has less regard for the conventions."

"To confine myself to desirable acquaintances," said Monsieur Dupont,
"would be my last wish."

"Then we will go to Richmond to-morrow night. He lives in a very strange
house, in a stranger garden--the sort of place that no ordinary normal
person could possibly live in. And I warn you that you will find nothing
ordinary or normal in it. If you are interested in some of the
unaccountable vagaries of human nature, you will enjoy yourself."

"The unaccountable vagaries of human nature," said Monsieur Dupont, "are
the foundation of my riddle."

"Then," Tranter returned, "I could give you no better chance to solve
it. In addition, you will probably make the acquaintance of a certain
pretty society widow, who wants to marry him because of his vices, and
one or two other well-known people who owe him money and can't afford to
refuse to dine with him. Also, as the invitation is an unusually
pressing one, we can rely on the introduction of some unexpected freaks
for our entertainment."

"It is arranged," Monsieur Dupont declared, "I go with you to Richmond."

"Very well," Tranter agreed. "Call for me here at eight o'clock, and we
will go. Help yourself to another drink."

Monsieur Dupont helped himself to another drink.

CHAPTER II

THE CROOKED HOUSE

It was no unusual thing for George Copplestone to spring surprises on
his guests. He had a twisted sense of the dramatic, and twisted things
were expected from him. On some occasions he perpetrated the wildest and
most extravagant eccentricities, without the slightest regard for the
moral or artistic sensibilities of those on whom he imposed them--on
others he contented himself with less harrowing minor freaks--but the
object of thoroughly upsetting and confounding the mental balances of
his victims was invariably achieved. He delighted, and displayed
remarkable ingenuity, in providing orgies of the abnormal. He reveled in
producing an atmosphere of brain-storm, and in dealing sledge-hammer
blows at the intellects of his better balanced acquaint