"What was your own opinion about it? Was it an accident?"
"I might not have believed it, but a similar thing took place about a couple of months later. Another man was found cheating, and this time Mrs. L'Estrange refused to face the music. She closed down, and disappeared from London. I have never met anybody who has seen or heard anything of her since. I expect she's to be found on the Continent like her friend Tommy."
"And Miss Keane was an inmate of this suspicious household?"
"Yes, ever since I went to the house, up to a few days after Tommy bolted. She left suddenly, and Mrs. L'Estrange was very reticent as to where she had gone to. The next I heard was that she had been married quietly to Guy Spencer."
"Did any suspicions attach to her?"
"No, it would not be fair to say that they did. She never played herself, but she had a great knack of hovering about the tables. And after the Esmond episode one or two men whispered that she had been hovering about them too much, and that Mrs. L'Estrange thought she had better get rid of her, might be so or not."
"Did you ever come across a cousin of hers there, a man named Dutton?"
"Oh yes, a dozen or more times, for I went to the flat pretty frequently. A common, under-bred fellow, not in the least like her, for in addition to being remarkably good-looking, her manners and appearance were those of a lady."
"Do you know what has become of him?"
"Yes, he's an outside stockbroker, with a small office in the City. I ran against him only last week. I don't know whether he recognised me or not, but I looked the other way. With one or two exceptions, the L'Estrange clientèle was not one that you cared to recognise when outside the flat."