«Certainly,» said Parker in some surprise.
Sir Julian was silent for a little time.
«I'm afraid I was the first person to put the idea into Sugg's head,» said Parker, rather penitently. «When Sir Reuben disappeared, my first step, almost, was to hunt up all the street accidents and suicides and so on that had turned up during the day, and I went down to see this Battersea Park body as a matter of routine. Of course, I saw that the thing was ridiculous as soon as I got there, but Sugg froze on to the idea — and it's true there was a good deal of resemblance between the dead man and the portraits I've seen of Sir Reuben.»
«A strong superficial likeness,» said Sir Julian. «The upper part of the face is a not uncommon type, and as Sir Reuben wore a heavy beard and there was no opportunity of comparing the mouths and chins, I can understand the idea occurring to anybody. But only to be dismissed at once. I am sorry,» he added, «as the whole matter has been painful to Lady Levy. You may know, Mr. Parker, that I am an old, though I should not call myself an intimate, friend of the Levys.»
«I understood something of the sort.»
«Yes. When I was a young man I — in short, Mr. Parker, I hoped once to marry Lady Levy.» (Mr. Parker gave the usual sympathetic groan.) «I have never married, as you know,» pursued Sir Julian. «We have remained good friends. I have always done what I could to spare her pain.»
«Believe me, Sir Julian,» said Parker, «that I sympathize very much with you and with Lady Levy, and that I did all I could to disabuse Inspector Sugg of this notion. Unhappily, the coincidence of Sir Reuben's being seen that evening in the Battersea Park Road — »
«Ah, yes,» said Sir Julian. «Dear me, here we are at home. Perhaps you would come in for a moment, Mr. Parker, and have tea or a whisky-and-soda or something.»
Parker promptly accepted this invitation, feeling that there were other things to be said.
The two men stepped into a square, finely furnished hall with a fireplace on the same side as the door, and a staircase opposite. The dining-room door stood open on their right, and as Sir Julian rang the bell a man-servant appeared at the far end of the hall.