'Certainly. Then there was another thing. Now, do you know, Lord Henry, whether Mrs. Massington has arrived in London yet? She sailed the day before I did, but we made a very fast voyage. She was in the Oceanic.'
'She arrives this evening,' said Ginger.
'And goes to her sister's, to Miss Farady's?' asked Bilton.
'Yes. Here we are. Won't you come in with me? I will see if my father is at home.'
Gallio was in, and very much at Bilton's service. Personally, he detested the man, but he liked his way of doing business, and he particularly liked the business he had come to do. Bertie's consent had been received by cable that afternoon, and a short half-hour was sufficient to draw up the extremely simple deed by virtue of which Molesworth, the house and park, and all that was within, house and park passed into the possession of Lewis S. Palmer on payment of the sum of two hundred thousand pounds.
'And I'll cable to Lewis right along,' said Bilton at the conclusion, 'and you'll find the sum standing to your credit to-morrow morning. By the way, Lewis expressly told me to ask you whether you had any wishes of any sort with regard to Molesworth—any small thing you wanted out of it, or anything you wanted kept exactly as it is.'
Gallio considered a moment.
'Ah, there's the visitors' book,' he said; 'I should rather like to have that. I don't think it could be of any value to Mrs. Palmer, as it only contains the names of friends of mine who have stayed there.'
'Distinguished names?' asked Bilton.
'I suppose you might call some of them distinguished.'