With this permission, he drew away and stood for some moments letting a very reflective eye travel round the interior; and meanwhile I watched him curiously and wondered what he had really come for. His first proceeding was to walk slowly round the studio and examine closely, one by one, all the casts which hung on pegs. Next, in the same systematic manner, he inspected all the shelves, mounting a chair to examine the upper ones. It was after scrutinizing one of the latter that he turned towards Marion and asked:
“Have you moved these casts lately, Miss D’Arblay?”
“No,” she replied; “so far as I know, they have not been touched for months.”
“Some one has moved them within the last day or two,” said he. “Apparently the nocturnal explorer went over the shelves as well as the cupboard.”
“I wonder why,” said Marion. “There were no moulds on the shelves.”
Thorndyke made no rejoinder, but as he stood on the chair he once more ran his eye round the studio. Suddenly he stepped down from the chair, picked it up, carried it over to the tall cupboard, and once more mounted it. His stature enabled him easily to look over the cornice on to the top of the cupboard, and it was evident that something there had attracted his attention.
“Here is a derelict of some sort,” he announced, “which certainly has not been moved for some months.” As he spoke, he reached over the cornice into the enclosed space and lifted out an excessively grimy plaster mask, from which he blew the thick coating of dust, and then stood for a while looking at it thoughtfully.
“A striking face this,” he remarked, “but not attractive. It rather suggests a Russian or Polish Jew; do you recognize the person, Miss D’Arblay?”
He stepped down from the chair, and handed the mask to Marion, who had advanced to look at it, and who now held it in her hand regarding it with a frown of perplexity.
“This is very curious,” she said. “I thought I knew all the casts that have been made here. But I have never seen this one before, and I don’t know the face. I wonder who he was. It doesn’t look like an English face, but I should hardly have taken it for the face of a Jew, with that rather small and nearly straight nose.”