been seen or heard of in any of his accustomed
haunts. " He may still return to-night," said
Penelope. " It may be simply bravado, to show
that he will not be controlled." They watched
and waited until the grey dawned in the sky,
but there came no tidings.

The next morning Clement went straight to
his office. It was yet so early that there was
no one there except an old woman employed in
sweeping and dusting. Mr. M'Culloch, who
had been absent from town, was expected back
that morning. Clement left a note for him,
excusing himself from attendance at the office that
day, and also a few written instructions to the
subordinate clerks. As he went out, he saw
the morning's letters lying on a desk. Among
them was one directed in the handwriting of his
anonymous enemy. He started as though he
had been stung, and turned away his head.
Then he stood a moment in the street, irresolute
which way to direct his course. " I will try
his old place once more," he said. " Some
of his companions may be known there." And
he went rapidly towards the dingy lodging-
house in the Strand. The slatternly servant—
whose tenure of office had been unprecedentedly
long— was still there, but had given notice,
and would leave to-morrow. She took care to
inform Clement of this fact before she answered
one of his inquiries, and added, superfluously
enough, that mines of gold should not tempt her
to remain another day.

"And you have not seen or heard anything of
Mr. Charlewood since he left these lodgings?"
asked Clement.

"Nothink at all, sir. Left 'em! Ah, an' I
should like to know who'd stop in 'em as could
provide theirselves otherways? I wonder as
the rats an' mice and the very black-beetles
doesn't go, I do." The slatternly servant was
evidently under a strong sense of injury, and
rubbed the hearth-stone with which she was
cleaning the door-step round and round as if
she found some relief to her feelings in grinding
it down spitefully.

"Then you can tell me nothing? I am very,
very sorry. We are in great trouble respecting
my brother, at home, and I should have been
grateful for any information that might enable
us to find him."

Clement had touched the right chord. The
girl looked up with a ray of sympathy in her
coarse face.

"In trouble, sir, are you? Law, now, I'm
sure I'm very sorry, and if I knowed anythink,
I'd tell you in a minute. Oh my!" she
exclaimed, after a moment's pause, clapping her
hands together, "I wonder if she could give
any information?"

"Who? Who, my good girl? For God's
sake tell me at once!"

"Well, sir, it's a party as comes here
sometimes to see a dressmaker as lodges in our
attics. She bounced a good bit about knowing
your famaly one day when she see you on the
stairs. Not as I swallows quite everythink as
she says, sir. But she's been here once or
twice since your brother left, and allus talks as if
she was quite intimate, like, with all on you."

"Met me on the stairs here? Do you mean
a woman named Hutchins?"

"Yes, sir. That's her. But, as true as I'm
here, I can't tell you where to find her, so it
ain't much use after all!"

"I happen to know her address," said
Clement, remembering his encounter with Corda.
"But it is incredible that she should have any
knowledge of my brother's whereabouts.
However, it is a chance, and I'll try it. Thanks,
my good girl."

He offered to slip a shilling into her hand,
but she drew back and shook her head.

"I couldn't, indeed, sir, thank you all the
same. I've got brothers and sisters of my
own, and I couldn't do it, sir. I'm a going to
the Eating 'Ouse next door, and if any time as
you was passing you'd jist ask for Sarah and
let me know as it was all right about young
Mr. Charlewood, I should take it kind. He
was a pleasant-spoken young gentleman."

Clement set off for that poor region he had
traversed so recently in Miss Fluke's sweet society.
He easily found the street, but it was a long
one, and all the squalid little dwellings
resembled one another. " I haven't the least
idea of the number," said Clement to himself,
and stood gazing about him. A door opened
on the opposite side of the way, and a tall,
round-shouldered man, with a paper cap on his
head, and carrying a basket of tools, came out
of it. " Come," thought Clement, "I owe Miss
Fluke something. If she had not insisted in
such an impressive manner that she knew that
man's face, I should not have recollected it so
distinctly. But that is Miss Fluke's acquaintance
without doubt, and there is the house."

He crossed the street and knocked at the
door. After some delay, it was opened by
Mrs. Hutchins herself in an unexampled
condition of untidiness, who uttered a faint
exclamation, and changed colour when she saw
Clement.

"Don't let me startle you," said Clement,
looking at her keenly. " I have merely called
to make a few inquiries of you."

Mrs. Hutchins stood with the door in her
hand, and muttered something about not
understanding what he meant.

"If you will allow me to come in for one
moment, I will explain to you."

"I don't know about coming in, I'm sure,"
she answered, sulkily. " My 'usband ain't
partial to strange faces."

"Your husband is not at home; I have just
seen him leave the house," said Clement, making
a guess.

"Well, an' if he is not at home! I suppose
you don't think it shows a manly 'art to come
and try to frighten one of the soft sex with
your 'inquiries,' do you?"

"My good woman, you are strangely ill
humoured. One would think you had done
something to be ashamed of, you are so alarmed
at the idea of an inquiry!"