"Because my brother entered into what he called a "deal" with them. He underwrote some shares in a South African mine, as a nominal affair, he told me, and now they want him to pay for them because the company is not supported by the public."
"No, I do not represent Dodge & Co."
"Is there something else then? Whom do you represent?"
"To be as precise as permissible, I may say that my inquiries in no sense affect financial matters."
"What then?"
"Well, there is a woman in the case."
Mrs. Hillmer was evidently both relieved and interested.
"No, you don"t say," she said. "Tell me all about it. I never knew Bertie to be much taken up with the fair s.e.x. I am all curiosity. Who is she?"
He did not take advantage of the mention of a name which in no way stood for Sydney. Besides, perhaps the initial stood for Herbert. He resolved to try another tack.
Glancing at his watch he said: "It is nearly seven o"clock. I have already detained you an unconscionable time. You were going out. Permit me to call again, and we can discuss matters at leisure."
He rose, and the lady sighed: "You were just beginning to be entertaining. I was only going to dine at a restaurant. I am quite tired of being alone."
Was it a hint? He would see. "Are you dining by yourself, then, Mrs.
Hillmer?"
"I hardly know. I may bring my maid."
Claude now made up his mind. "May I venture," he said, "after such an informal introduction, to ask you to dine with me at the Prince"s Restaurant, and afterwards, perhaps, to look in at the Jollity Theatre?"
The lady was unfeignedly pleased. She arranged to call for him in her brougham within twenty minutes, and Bruce hurried off to Victoria Street in a hansom to dress for this unexpected branch of the detective business.
When he told his valet to telephone to the restaurant and the theatre respectively for a reserved table and a couple of stalls, that worthy chuckled.
When his master entered a brougham in which was seated a fur-wrapped lady, the valet grinned broadly. "I knew it," he said. "The guv"nor"s on the mash. Now, who would ever have thought it of him?"
CHAPTER V
AT THE JOLLITY THEATRE
By tacit consent, Claude and his fair companion dropped for the hour the roles of inquisitor and witness.
They were both excellent talkers, they were mutually interested, and there was in their present escapade a spice of that romance not so lacking in the humdrum life of London as is generally supposed to be the case.
Bruce did not ask himself what tangible result he expected from this quaint outcome of his visit to Sloane Square. It was too soon yet. He must trust to the vagaries of chance to elucidate many things now hidden. Meanwhile a good dinner, a bright theatre, and the society of a smart, nice-looking woman, were more than tolerable subst.i.tutes for progress.
As a partial explanation of his somewhat eccentric behavior, he volunteered a lively account of a recent _cause celebre_, in which he had taken a part, but the details of which had been rigidly kept from the public. He more than hinted that Mr. Sydney Corbett had figured prominently in the affair; and Mrs. Hillmer laughed with unrestrained mirth at the unwonted appearance of her brother in the character of a Lothario.
"Tell me," said Bruce confidentially, when a couple of gla.s.ses of Moet "89 had consolidated friendly relations, "what sort of a fellow is this brother of yours?"
"Not in any sense a bad boy, but a trifle wild. He will not live an ordinary life, and at times he has been hard pressed to live at all. As a matter of fact, it is this sc.r.a.pe he blundered into with Messrs. Dodge & Co. that induced him to masquerade temporarily under an a.s.sumed name."
"Then what is his real name?"
"Ah, now you are pumping me again. I refuse to tell."
"But there are generally serious reasons when a man disguises himself in such fashion."
"The reason he gave me was that he dreaded being writted for liability regarding the shares I mentioned to you. It was good enough. Now you come with this story of meddling with somebody else"s wife. Surely this is an additional reason. I supplied him with funds until we quarrelled, and then he went off in a huff."
"What did you quarrel about?"
"That concerns me only." Mrs. Hillmer was so emphatic that Bruce dropped the subject.
When they drove to the theatre Mrs. Hillmer, on alighting at the entrance, said to her coachman, "You may return home now, and bring Dobson to meet me at 11.15."
"May I venture to inquire who Dobson is?" said Claude.
"Certainly. Dobson is my maid."
This woman puzzled him the more he saw of her. He was now quite positive that she lived on the fringe of Society. Her status was, at the best, dubious. Yet he had never heard of her before, nor met her in public.
None of his friends were known to her, and she mentioned no one beyond those popular personages who are _connu_ of all the world.
She was obviously wealthy and refined, with more than a spice of unconventionality. At times, too, beneath her habitual expressions of lively and vivacious interest, there was a touch of melancholy.
For an instant her face grew sad when her eyes rested on a typical family party of father, mother, and two girls who occupied seats in the row of stalls directly in front of her.
For some reason Bruce felt sorry for Mrs. Hillmer. He regretted that the exigencies of his quest forced him to make her his dupe, and he resolved that, if by any chance her scapegrace brother were concerned in Lady d.y.k.e"s death, Mrs. Hillmer should, if possible, be spared personal humiliation or disgrace.
Indeed, he had formed such a favorable opinion of her that he had made up his mind to conduct his future investigations without causing her to a.s.sist involuntarily in putting a halter around her relative"s neck.
Nevertheless, it was impossible to avoid getting some further information, as the lady herself paved the way for it. Her comments betrayed such an accurate acquaintance with the technique of the stage that he said to her, "You must have acted a good deal?"
"No," she said, "not very much. But I was stage struck when young."
"But you have not appeared in public?"
"Yes, some six years ago. I worked so hard that I fell ill, and then--then I got married."
"Do you go out much to theatres, nowadays?"
"Very little. It is lonely by oneself, and there are so few plays worth seeing."
Bruce wondered why she insisted so strongly upon the isolation of her existence. In his new-found sympathy he forebore to question, and she continued:
"When I do visit a theatre I amuse myself mostly by silent criticism of the actors and actresses. Not that I could do better than many of them, or half so well, but it pa.s.ses the time."
"I hope you do not regard killing time as your main occupation?"