"Well, how the devil did she tell you to follow me, then?"
"She wanted to know where you were going to."
"But," roared Hancock, whose face had been slowly crimsoning, or purpling rather, since the mention of his sister's name, "how the blazes did she know I was going anywhere?"
"When I saw you going out of the office with Miss Lambert I ran round and told her."
"When you saw me going out of the office with Miss Lambert you ran round and told her!" said Hancock, spacing each word and speaking with such a change from fire to ice that his listener shivered. "Oh, this is too good! I pay you a large salary to spy upon me and to run round and tell my sister my doings. Am I mad, or am I dreaming? And what—what—WHAT led you, sir, to leave the office and run round and tell my sister?"
"For God's sake, Mr James, don't talk so loud!" said Bridgewater; "the people are turning round to look at us. I didn't leave the office of my own accord; it was Miss Patience, who said to me, she said, 'Bridgewater, I trust you for your master's sake to let me know if you see him with a lady, for,' she said, 'there is a woman who has designs on him.'"
"Ah!"
"Those were her words. So when I saw you going out with Miss Lambert I ran round and told her."
"Ah!"
Mr Hancock had fallen from fury into a thoughtful mood: one of the sharpest brains in London was engaged in unravelling the meaning to get at the inner-meaning of all this.