I put down the paper with satisfaction and ate a good lunch. I had at any rate not inflicted any great physical suffering.
Mr. Gascoyne came back from his lunch looking very white.
“It’s a most awful thing, Israel. There seems to be a curse on our family.”
“Why, sir, what is the matter now?”
“You know my cousin Ughtred?”
“Yes.”
“The poor fellow has been suffocated in his bed.”
I appeared horrified. “You don’t mean to say at his rooms in Albemarle Street?”
“Yes.”
I looked terribly concerned.