51131 On the issue of this question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the Temple.
51132 It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my inquiry.
51133 I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the situation.'
51134 'I am following you closely,' I answered.
51135 'I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out.
51136 He was a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached - evidently the man of whom I had heard.
51137 He appeared to be in a great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.
51138 'He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch glimpses of him, in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and down, talking excitedly and waving his arms.
51139 Of her I could see nothing.
51140 Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than before.
51141 As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it earnestly.
51142 'Drive like the devil," he shouted, "first to Gross and Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to the church of St. Monica in the Edgware Road.
51143 Half a guinea if you do it in twenty minutes!'
51144 'Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do well to follow them, when up the lane came a neat little landau, the coachman with his coat only half buttoned, and his tie under his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of the buckles.