"No, my lord. She left this morning."
"Left this morning?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Did she leave no message?"
"No, my lord."
He remembered what she had said, and began to realise.
"All right," he said. "Will you bring me a cup of tea?"
A few minutes later he was in the street again. This time he used no conveyance, but walked rapidly towards Deansgate. Ere long he found himself in the region where he had been on the previous night, and, finding his way into Dixon Street, he went to the house where Paul's mother had met him. When he knocked at the door, however, it was answered by a stranger.
"Is Mrs. Stepaside in?"
"No; she left here to-day."