he could assume and inquired of the hall-porter who the gentleman was who had just come in.
“His name is Pelham, sir,” said the man; “Mr. Francis Pelham, I think. He’s not stopped here before, sir.”
“Thank you,” said Farnham. “Be good enough not to mention that I inquired; he might consider it an impertinence;” and impressing this injunction upon the porter by a judicious bestowal of a shilling, he went out and, oblivious of his appointment, hailed a hansom and was driven to Scotland Yard as fast as an indifferent horse could take him.
Lethbridge was absent, but upon Farnham’s assurance that his business was urgent, he was sent for and presently came in, and Farnham was again reassured by finding that even the detective’s keen eye failed to recognize him in his altered personality. A reference to the events of the preceding summer,
