The man who had seemed to follow her was not among those who got off at the corner, but, as she watched the car roll up the street, a man dropped off about midway of the block above, and Ida thought it was the man in question.
This man hurriedly walked up the block in the same direction the car was going, and disappeared around the same corner.
Ida now looked at her memoranda, and found that the house occupied by the family of the murdered girl was in the street on the corner of which she was standing. It was not her intention to visit this house, but she had intended to inspect it from the outside.
It was clear that the houses of that neighborhood were not occupied by the wealthier residents of Philadelphia, but it was also clear that it was a thrifty neighborhood, and that the people living there were at least in comfortable circumstances.
Most of the people whose names Nick had put down on the list he had given her lived thereabouts.
One, however, was a detective friend of Nick’s, who, Nick said, would give Ida such assistance as she might need were she to require it.
Ida, however, had determined that she would not call upon this detective unless she were compelled to, by failing to secure what she was after in applying to the other people.
Having observed the house, Ida passed on, intending to call on a woman living on the block below, whose name had been given her by Nick.
As she reached the next corner, to her surprise, as well as to the surprise of the other, she came face to face with the man who had annoyed her previously, and who had just turned the corner.
In his surprise and embarrassment the man lifted his hat and went on.