“Yes, Miss. He had some business in Holloway, so he thought he would come on here to make your acquaintance and take a look at the premises.”
“All the same, Mr. Polton,” said I, “I don’t quite see the connexion between Dr. Thorndyke and wax.”
He crinkled with a slightly embarrassed air and explained that he must have been thinking of something that the doctor had said to him; but his explanations were cut short by a knock at the door.
“That is his knock,” said Polton; and he and I together proceeded to open the door, when I inducted the distinguished visitor into the studio and presented him to the presiding goddess. I noticed that each of them inspected the other with some curiosity, and that the first impressions appeared to be mutually satisfactory, though Marion was at first a little overawed by Thorndyke’s impressive personality.
“You mustn’t let me interrupt your work,” the latter said, when the preliminary politenesses had been exchanged. “I have just come to fill in Dr. Gray’s outline sketches with details of my own observing. I wanted to see you—to convert a name into an actual person, to see the studio for the same reason, and to get as precise a description as possible of the man whom we are trying to identify. Will it distress you to recall his appearance?”
She had turned a little pale at the mention of her late assailant, but she answered stoutly enough: “Not at all; besides, it is necessary.”
“Thank you,” said he; “then I will read out the description that I had from Dr. Gray, and we will see if you can add anything to it.”
He produced a note-book, from which he read out the particulars that I had given him, at the conclusion of which he looked at her inquiringly.
“I think that is all that I remember,” she said. “There was very little light, and I really only glanced at him.”
Thorndyke looked at her reflectively. “It is a fairly full description,” said he. “Perhaps the nose is a little sketchy. You speak of a hooked nose with a high bridge. Was it a curved nose of the Jewish type, or a squarer, Roman nose?”