"That is more than I do. Will you please to explain it?"
"You are accurately informed. Mrs. Elgar came here, naturally enough, to ask if I knew what had become of you."
"And why should she come to you?"
"Because my letter to you lay open somewhere in your house, and she thought it possible we had been together."
Elgar reflected. Yes, he remembered that the letter was left on his table.
"And where did she go afterwards? Where did you conduct her?"
"I went rather more than half-way home with her, in the cab" replied Mallard, somewhat doggedly. "I supposed she was going on to Belsize Park."
"Then you know nothing of her reason for not doing so?"
"Nothing whatever."
Elgar became silent. The artist, after moving about quietly, turned to question him with black brows.