Perry Toat looked back with a demure face. "When I have something to report."
"You'll do your best?" Shawe urged her.
"I always do my best for my clients," she said, in a tone of faint rebuke.
"But in this case there is much money also."
"Oh, I shan't charge you much, Mr. Shawe."
"I am not alluding to that. I shall pay you well. But if you lay hands on the assassin you shall have the thousand pounds' reward offered by--"
Peronella Toat interrupted with a flushed face. "One thousand pounds!" she said, drawing a deep breath. "Yes, I forgot that. I must earn it. If I do, I can gain my heart's desire."
"What is that?"
She smiled demurely. "A husband," was her reply, and she vanished.
Ralph went back to his room with a look of wonder. It seemed impossible that this shadow of a woman should ever be able to gain a husband, even if she had a bribe of one thousand pounds to offer her bridegroom.