"H'm! Isn't that rather a proof that it was suicide? Well, go on."
"About a fortnight before the suicide, Jessie Dymond disappeared. So they tell me in Stepney Green, where she lodged and worked."
"What was she?"
"She was a dressmaker. She had a wonderful talent. Quite fashionable ladies got to know of it. One of her dresses was presented at Court. I think the lady forgot to pay for it; so Jessie's landlady said."
"Did she live alone?"
"She had no parents, but the house was respectable."
"Good-looking, I suppose?"
"As a poet's dream."
"As yours, for instance?"
"I am a poet; I dream."