“Come in, then, my dear man, do! Come in!” And she preceded him into the drawing-room, an apartment furnished in the richest Tottenham Court Road splendour. They sat down on either side of the hearth, where a fire was burning. He did not know exactly how to begin.
“Now, Mr. Carpentaria,” she encouraged him.
“Some very strange things have been happening, Mrs. Ilam,” said he.
He deemed that he might as well go directly to the point. He would come to Juliette afterwards. So long as Juliette was not in Ilam’s house she was probably in no immediate danger.
“To you?” asked the dame.
“To me. I saw some very strange things with my own eyes last night, and within the last twelve Lours there have been two attempts to murder me.”
A slight flush reddened the wrinkled yellow cheek of Mrs. Ilam. It seemed as though she tried to speak and could not. Her fingers worked convulsively.
“You, too?” he murmured, with apparent difficulty.
“Why do you say ‘you, too’?” Carpentaria demanded.
She paused again.