g about the
Company, eh?" He looked at his watch as he spoke. Evidently the presence
of this stranger had excited him a good deal.

"No," she assured him, reflectively; "no, I'm sure he didn't. From what
he said, he doesn't know his way about London very well, or anywhere
else, for that matter, I should say."

Thorpe nodded, and put his finger to his forehead with a meaning look.
"No--he's a shade off in the upper story," he told her in a confidential
tone. "Still, it's important that I should see him,"--and with only a
hasty hand-shake he bustled out of the shop.

By the light of the street lamp opposite, she could see him on the
pavement, in the pelting rain, vehemently signalling with his umbrella
for a cab.

CHAPTER XV

"We've got a spare room here, haven't we?" Thorpe asked his niece, when
she came out to greet him in the hall of their new home in Ovington
Square. He spoke with palpable eagerness before even unbuttoning his
damp great-coat, or putting off his hat. "I mean it's all in working
order ready for use?"

"Why yes, uncle," Julia answered, after a moment's thought. "Is someone
coming?"

"I think so," he replied, with a grunt of relief. He seemed increasingly
pleased with the project he had in mind, as she helped him off with his
things. The smile he gave her, when she playfully took his arm to lead
him into the adjoining library, was clearly but a part of the satisfied
grin with which he was considering some development in his own affairs.

He got into his slippers and into the easy-chair before the bright fire
and lit a cigar with a contented air.

"Well, my little girl?" he said, with genial inconsequence, and smiled
again at her, where she stood beside the mantel.

"It will be such a lark to play the hostess to a stranger!" she
exclaimed. "When is he coming?--I suppose it is a 'he,'" she added, less
buoyantly.

"Oh--that fellow," Thorpe said, as if he had been thinking of something
else. "Well--I can't tell just when he will turn up. I only learned he
was in town--or in England--a couple of hours ago. I haven't seen him
yet at all. I drove round to his lodgings, near the British Museum,
but he wasn't there. He only comes there to sleep, but they told me he
turned in early--by nine o'clock or so. Then I went round to a hotel and
wrote a note for him, and took it back to his lodgings, and left it for
him. I told him to pack up his things as soon as he got it, and drive
here, and make