With Esther to decide is to act. Within an hour she had laid her scheme before the Inspector in charge at the Police Station by St. Mary Abbott's, and enjoined upon him to search his division for a married constable of lofty character who would like to live rent free in a dry and roomy basement. Within twenty-four hours the constable was found.
Esther viewed him with approval, for he was large and serious; he had the highest of characters, and had married a cook from De Vere Gardens who had received a plated teapot from her late mistress as a mark of esteem. They both assured Esther that they would do their best by her and the other young lady, and an appointment was made for a view of the house in Phillimore Place.
And so it came about that, one evening, just as dusk was falling, Esther and Susie met the constable and his wife outside the house, and, after greeting each other on the pavement, entered together. At that moment an errand-boy was slowly propelling a carrier tricycle along by the kerb. His day's deliveries were accomplished, and, as he looked this way and that way with a mind receptive of stray impressions, his eye fell upon Esther and her companions. He was immediately conscious of something unusual.
There is nothing remarkable about a policeman in Kensington High Street; but a policeman being conducted into a house by a young lady, and closely followed by two other women, one of whom wears a nurse's uniform, affords matter for conjecture. The errand-boy applied the brake to his cycle, and came slowly to a standstill just below the house, at which he looked thoughtfully. Esther with the constable and the nurse and the constable's wife had disappeared through the front door, and for a minute or so nothing more happened.
The boy, disappointed of his expected sensation, was just bending forward to start his cycle again when he caught sight of an acquaintance who was carrying a basket containing a dozen of stout. A shrill whistle brought him to the side of the cycle.
"Wotcher!" he said.
"There's a copper gone in there," said the boy on the cycle, nodding towards the house. "And a 'orspital nurse."
"'THERE'S A COPPER GONE IN THERE, AND A 'ORSPITAL NURSE,' SAID THE BOY ON THE CYCLE."
The other boy regarded the house critically.