"Quite impossible in the time."
"I can't say _how_ she has found you out," proceeded the captain, with
perfect composure. "She may know more of your voice than we supposed
she knew. Or she may have thought us, on reflection, rather a suspicious
family; and anything suspicious in which a woman was concerned may have
taken her mind back to that morning call of yours in Vauxhall Walk.
Whichever way it may be, the meaning of this sudden change is clear
enough. She has found you out; and she wants to put her discovery to the
proof by slipping in an awkward question or two, under cover of a little
friendly talk. My experience of humanity has been a varied one, and
Mrs. Lecount is not the first sharp practitioner in petticoats whom I
have had to deal with. All the world's a stage, my dear girl, and one of
the scenes on our little stage is shut in from this moment."
With those words he took his copy of Joyce's Scientific Dialogues out
of his pocket. "You're done with already, my friend!" said the captain,
giving his useful information a farewell smack with his hand, and
locking it up in the cupboard. "Such is human popularity!" continued
the indomitable vagabond, putting the key cheerfully in his pocket.
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