"It was just as you see it now."
He took a piece of paper and made one or two notes.
"I imagine that particular call would be difficult to trace," he said. "Duke's Mansions has a number, and from the office in the building the particular flat required is switched on. There must have been scores of calls during the evening. I don't remember anything particular about Arthur Bridwell's parliamentary career, do you?"
"No, beyond the fact that he is Member for one of the divisions of Sussex."
Quarles looked slowly round the room.
"A bag," he mused; "one of those small chain or leather affairs which women carry, I suppose; a purse in it, a handkerchief, perhaps a letter or two. Bridwell would see it in all probability after the lady had left, and he would—he would put it on a side table or slip it into a drawer out of the way. Shall we just have Masini in and ask him a question or two?"
Instead of questioning the Italian the professor got him to repeat the story as he had told it to me. It was exactly the same account.
"You know nothing about these two visitors?"
"Nothing, signore. I had never seen them before, but I should know them again."
"No names were mentioned in your presence?"