at.

"If this room looked out over the back, or front, it would have been
necessary for me either to have curtains, which I abominate, or to run
the risk of being observed, which would have been far worse," he had
remarked to me once. "Needless to say there are times when I find it
most necessary that my preparations should not be suspected."

Taken altogether, it was a room that had a strange fascination for me. I
had been in it many times before, but was always able to discover
something new in it. It was a conglomeration of cupboards and shelves. A
large variety of costumes hung upon the pegs in the walls, ranging from
soldier's uniforms to beggar's rags. There were wigs of all sorts and
descriptions on blocks, pads of every possible order and for every part
of the body, humps for hunchbacks, wooden legs, boots ranging from the
patent leather of the dandy to the toeless foot-covering of the beggar.
There were hats in abundance, from the spotless silk to the most
miserable head coverings, some of which looked as if they had been
picked up from the rubbish-heap. There were pedlars' trays fitted with
all and every sort of ware, a faro-table, a placard setting forth the
fact that the renowned Professor Somebody or Other was a most remarkable
phrenologist and worthy of a visit. In fact there was no saying what
there was not there. Everything that was calculated to be useful to him
in his profession was to be found in the room.

For my own part I am not fond of disguises. Indeed on only two or three
occasions, during the whole course of my professional career, have I
found it necessary to conceal my identity. But to this wily little
Frenchman disguise was, as often as not, a common occurrence.

Half-an-hour later, two respectable elderly gentlemen, looking more like
professors from some eminent _Lycee_ than detectives, left the house and
proceeded in the direction of the Folly Theatre. The performance was
almost at an end when we reached it, and we mingled with the crowd who
had assembled to watch the audience come out. The inquiries we had made
proved to be correct, and it was not very long before I saw the man I
wanted emerge, accompanied by a female, who could be no other than
Mademoiselle Beaumarais. Hayle was in immaculate evening dress, and as I
could not but admit, presented a handsome figure to the world. A neat
little brougham drew up beside the pavement in its turn, and into this
they stepped. Then the door wa