The investigator could only approach the question in the most commonplace manner. It was nearly a quarter of a century since James Dalbrook had been a tenant of that ground-floor set, above which Theodore was pacing up and down in the summer dusk. He had to find some one who remembered him at that time.
It would not be his present laundress, a buxom matron of about five and thirty, who had never been known to any present inhabitant of Ferret Court without the encumbrance of a baby in arms, or a baby at the breast. As fast as one baby was disposed of, there was another coming forward to take its place. She always brought her baby with her, and left it about in obscure corners, like an umbrella. It was always of the order of infant designated good; that is to say, it was not a squalling baby. There were some of Mrs. Armstrong’s clients who suspected her of keeping it in a semi-narcotized condition in the interests of her profession; but when this practice was hinted at the matron referred to the necessities of teething, and hoped she did not require to be reminded of her duty as a mother.
This good person brought in the lighted lamp while Theodore was pacing up and down the narrow limits of his sitting-room. She placed the lamp on the table, looked inquiringly at her employer, and then retired, only to return with the tea-tray, which she arranged lingeringly. She was a talkative person, with an active intellect, and it irked her to leave the room without any scrap of conversation, were it only an inquiry about the postman, or a casual remark upon the weather.
Nothing being forthcoming from Mr. Dalbrook, she withdrew to the door, but paused upon the threshold and dropped a curtsey.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have a storm to-night, sir,” she said.
The fear was a thing of the moment, inspired by her desire to talk.
“Do you think so, Mrs. Armstrong?”
“I do, indeed, sir. It couldn’t be that ’eavy if there wasn’t thunder in the air.”
“Perhaps not,” replied Theodore, indifferently. “Ah! by the way, how long have you looked after these chambers?”
“From three years before I was married, sir.”