“My advice to you is to leave it alone. Don’t do anything. Masterly inactivity is plainly the policy for you.”
“That’s all well enough. I’d be very glad to leave it alone. There’s nothing I’d like better. But the fact is, I can’t. I’m more or less pledged to—— My hand has been, so to speak, forced.”
“Had a visit from Miss Blow?”
“Yes.”
“She’s a wonderful woman. She was here yesterday; spent half an hour with me in this very room.”
“She’s a very good-looking girl,” said Mr. Goddard.
“She is. I admit that. Her eyes, for instance. Grey, I thought them; but they looked quite blue in certain lights; and a very good figure, a remarkable figure. All the same I couldn’t have her settling herself down for good and all in my house. I had to get her out of it somehow. I gave her a note for Sergeant Farrelly.”
“Oh! That’s the meaning of your note. It rather puzzled me.”
“I’m afraid it must have rather puzzled Sergeant Farrelly too. I felt sorry for him; but what could I do? She evidently meant to stay here till I gave her a note of the sort she wanted. I thought it better to shift the responsibility of dealing with her on to the sergeant. After all, he’s paid for looking into things of the kind. I’m not.”
“The sergeant sent her on to me. It was extremely awkward. She cried like anything.”