Dudley made an impatient gesture.
"I can get a biscuit somewhere, if I want it. I can't eat just now."
"Let me eat your dinner for you, then," said Max. "I've had none. And if I'm to go rambling all over the town to look after you, I shall want something to keep me going."
"All right," said Dudley. "I'm to come back here for you, then?"
And he took up his overcoat. Max began to help him on with it.
"Come in here a moment," said Dudley, in the same dry, abrupt manner as before; "I want to speak to you."
Max followed him into the ante-room, and Dudley shut the sitting-room door.
"That girl," said he, with, a frown—"where did you pick her up? At the wharf?"
"I met her there. She was walking about outside, afraid to go in. The old woman had left her there alone, with a—a—dead body in the place."
At these words a change came over Dudley's face.