nd never a
duster or a brush put inside the door."

"He is afraid of his specimens being disturbed, Mrs Brade."

"Oh, dear, no, sir. It never was his way. I'd got used to his manners
and customs--we understood each other, and if I lifted up a bottle or a
specimen, whether it was a bird or only a bone, down it went in the same
place again, so exact that you couldn't tell it had been moved."

"But Mr Brettison does the same, Mrs Brade."

"Him, sir?" said the woman contemptuously; "that's different. One knows
he's a little bit queer. It's nothing new for him to be away months
together, and then come back loaded with rubbidge."

"When did you say Mr Stratton came here last?"

"Four days ago, sir, and I went after him, and begged and prayed of him,
with a pail and broom in my hand, to let me do him up, but he only
pynted downward like a man in a play; and there's his place going to
rack and ruin."

"Next time he comes, Mrs Brade," said Guest, slipping a sovereign into
her hand, "send your husband on to me directly and try and keep Mr
Stratton till he comes back."

"That I will, sir," she cried eagerly; and she kept her word over and
over again, but to Guest's intense chagrin always too late.

"Just comes in quickly, sir, runs up to his rooms and gets his letters,
and goes out the other way."

This occurred till Guest grew damped, then angry, then damped again;
but, in spite of his disheartened state, he manfully resumed his search,
for whenever he was disposed to give it up as what he called a bad job,
he was forced on by Edie with the greatest eagerness--"to save _her_
life."

There was a time when Guest thought of getting professional help, but a
strange dread of something terrible being wrong kept him back from this,
and he spent every spare hour in seeking for his friend in every resort,
but all in vain. Still he heard of him again and again, and of his
calling at the institution, where he had a fresh release from duty
granted him for a month; and feeling that he was bound to run against
his friend sooner or later, Guest relaxed his efforts, and the very next
day caught sight of Stratton in a cab, followed it till it turned down
one of the Strand _culs-de-sac_, saw him alight at a great house
overlooking the river and pay the cabman; and then followed him in, and
up a great winding stone staircase to a door on the upper floor.

"She lives there," thought Guest with a feeling of rage in his breast,
and