“Yes, sometimes—but not very often.”
“Had he any profession?” I inquired.
“No. I understand that his father, who was a landowner in Cheshire, left him with a very comfortable income. My wife and I liked him, for he was a quiet, rather studious young fellow, though often at Mr. Audley’s invitation he went out of an evening and did not return till the early hours. But now-a-days with those dance clubs going, most young men do that.”
“Well, Mr. Belton, may I see Mr. Graydon’s room?” I asked. In response, he took me up to the next floor, where the sitting-room and bedroom were even cosier and better furnished than the rooms below.
“Mr. Graydon, when he left, laughingly said that he might be married soon, but if he didn’t marry he’d come back to us. He told my wife that he was going on a yachting trip to Norway with some friends, and afterwards he had to go to Montreal to visit some relatives.”
“But the curious fact is that the man I knew as Audley is none other than the man you know as Graydon!” I said.
“That’s certainly very mysterious, sir. Mr. Graydon must have assumed Mr. Audley’s name,” Belton said.
“The whole affair is a complete mystery,” I remarked. “I wish you’d tell me more that you know concerning this Mr. Graydon. What was his Christian name, by the way? And when did you last see him?”
“Philip. He left us last September.”
“And the young lady who came to see him?”