"Before I do anything I must ask you another question." I replied. "Have you any idea what your husband's habits were ten years ago? Was he extravagant or careful? For instance, on arriving at Dover, would he be likely to go to a good hotel?"
"He would go to the best," she answered. "He is not careful of money now, and I am sure he never could have been in the past."
"Then, if my surmise is correct," I said, "we are most likely to find him at the Lord Warden Hotel, which is, of course, the best in the town. Anyhow, it is worthwhile to go there first to make inquiries about him."
"Very well," she replied, in a submissive, hopeless kind of voice.
She had yielded herself up to my directions, but up to the present moment I had failed to inspire her with any faith in the success of my mission. She was evidently oppressed with the fear that Mainwaring had committed suicide, and seemed to think my conjecture about him impossible.
As we were walking to the hotel, she said, suddenly:—
"If my husband is really out of his mind, we are ruined from a worldly point of view."
"I am sorry to hear that," I replied. "Have you no private means?"
"No," she answered. "My husband had his profession, and he was doing good work as a barrister. But there is no profession in the world which requires greater brain power than his. We have nothing to live on except what my husband earns."
"In case Mr. Mainwaring cannot earn money for a time, have you no relations who will help you?" I asked.