Lord Peter applied himself to the duck, having got a little behindhand. Presently he heard somebody ask the Duchess if she had seen Lady Levy.
«She is in great distress,» said the woman who had spoken, a Mrs. Freemantle, «though she clings to the hope that he will turn up. I suppose you knew him, Mr. Milligan — know him, I should say, for I hope he's still alive somewhere.»
Mrs. Freemantle was the wife of an eminent railway director, and celebrated for her ignorance of the world of finance. Her faux pas in this connection enlivened the tea parties of city men's wives.
«Well, I've dined with him,» said Mr. Milligan, good-naturedly. «I think he and I've done our best to ruin each other, Mrs. Freemantle. If this were the States,» he added, «I'd be much inclined to suspect myself of having put Sir Reuben in a safe place. But we can't do business that way in your old country; no, ma'am.»
«It must be exciting work doing business in America,» said Lord Peter.
«It is,» said Mr. Milligan. «I guess my brothers are having a good time there now. I'll be joining them again before long, as soon as I've fixed up a little bit of work for them on this side.»
«Well, you mustn't go till after my bazaar,» said the Duchess.
Lord Peter spent the afternoon in a vain hunt for Mr. Parker. He ran him down eventually after dinner in Great Ormond Street.
Parker was sitting in an elderly but affectionate armchair, with his feet on the mantelpiece, relaxing his mind with a modern commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. He received Lord Peter with quiet pleasure, though without rapturous enthusiasm, and mixed him a whisky-and-soda. Peter took up the book his friend had laid down and glanced over the pages.
«All these men work with a bias in their minds, one way or other,» he said; «they find what they are looking for.»