"I fear I am too busy, ma'am," said the man, playing his fish.
"Oh, but do come in," pleaded Mrs. Varney.
"Well, then, for five minutes," said Jasher, and this was how he came in a short time to be seated in a cosy parlour opposite to a tall, bold-looking young woman, with a hard mouth and big eyes almost as large and black as the professor's own. She resembled her sister in looks, and was scarcely less theatrical. After expressing her pleasure at seeing Jasher, and being determined--as he soon saw--not to let him go until she knew everything about Bocaros, she invited him to a cup of tea. Mrs. Varney went out to get the tea, and Jasher found himself being pumped by Miss Doon.
"I met the professor quite casually," she said, "having been insulted by a man one evening in the Nightingales' Walk. I cried for help, and the professor smote the ruffian to the earth. Then he asked me into his rustic home, and was quite the gentleman. We have been quite the best of friends for over a year," sighed Miss Doon sentimentally, "and lately he has given me to understand that he desires a nearer and dearer tie."
"Why don't you marry him, then?"
Miss Doon smiled and looked significantly at the detective. "I do not care about living in so damp a house as 'The Refuge,'" she said. "I will marry the professor when he can give me a better home. I suppose he is not well off?"
"At present he isn't," said the professor's man of business, "but some day he may come in for a few thousands a year."
"Oh!" Miss Doon gasped, "how delicious. I would certainly marry him then and leave my present place. Not that I have anything to complain of," she added graciously, "but I have always felt that it was my high lot to be a lady of rank."
"Quite so. And if the professor gets this money he can resume his rank, which is that of a Greek baron."
"Oh, good gracious!" Miss Doon gasped again; "then I would be the Baroness Bocaros."