He was indeed only just in time to get into the Lovelace bar before the Abbey clock struck ten. He enquired about the King’s Barton coachman and found that Mrs. Solent had left a message at the hotel-office earlier in the evening, saying that they could not wait for him, but that they had heard of Mr. Smith’s death and would Mr. Solent come and see her tomorrow.

“I wonder,” he thought, “how the devil she heard? They must have actually come to the door and been told by the maid about it when we were all upstairs. Well, it’ll give her some kind of a shock, I daresay⁠—but not very much!”