“No secret hobby?” she asked. “Tell me⁠—you’re drawn to something? Everyone is⁠—usually something absurd.”

“You’ll laugh at me.”

She smiled.

“Perhaps.”

“Well, I’ve always had a secret hankering to be a detective!”

“The real thing⁠—Scotland Yard? Or Sherlock Holmes?”

“Oh, Sherlock Holmes by all means. But really, seriously, I am awfully drawn to it. I came across a man in Belgium once, a very famous detective, and he quite inflamed me. He was a marvellous little fellow. He used to say that all good detective work was a mere matter of method. My system is based on his⁠—though of course I have progressed rather further. He was a funny little man, a great dandy, but wonderfully clever.”