"
"What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Camber. "Answer me, Ah Tsong: who sent
you?"
"Lilly missee," crooned the Chinaman, smiling up into the other's face
with a sort of childish entreaty. "Lilly missee."
"Oh," said Mr. Camber in a changed voice. "Oh."
He stood very upright for a moment, his gaze set upon the wrinkled
Chinese face. Then he looked at Mrs. Wootton and bowed, and looked at
me and bowed, very stiffly.
"I must excuse myself, sir," he announced. "My wife desires my presence
at home."
I returned his bow, and as he walked quite steadily toward the door,
followed by Ah Tsong, he paused, turned, and said: "Mr. Knox, I should
esteem it a friendly action if you would spare me an hour of your
company before you leave Surrey. My visitors are few. Any one, any one,
will direct you to the Guest House. I am persuaded that we have much in
common. Good-day, sir."
He went down the steps, disappearing in company with the Chinaman, and
having watched them go, I turned to Mrs. Wootton, the landlady, in
silent astonishment.
She nodded her head and sighed.
"The same every day and every evening for months past," she said.
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