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Updated: May 3, 2025
"I suppose I suppose," she said timidly, "you think I ought to have brought somebody, with me?" "In a way, I'm just as glad you didn't." "I've heaps of chaperons outside on the stairs, you know." "There's no place like outside for chaperons." "And the liftman believes I'm your aunt. At least, perhaps he doesn't, but I mentioned it to him." I looked at her, and then I smiled. And then I laughed.
She turned sharply, gave a joyous and yet timid commencement of a scream, and left the lift to the liftman. 'I'm so glad I've not missed you, she said, holding out her small gloved hand, and putting her golden head on one side, and smiling. 'I was afraid I should. I had to go out. Don't tell me that interview was too awful. Don't crush me. I know it was pretty bad. So her name was Geraldine.
He entered the hall and stood by the gate until the lift had descended. "Can you tell me which of these offices that lady works in?" he said to the liftman. "The lady you've just taken up, Miss Moore?" The liftman looked at him suspiciously. "Wot you want to know for?" he demanded. "Oh, I ... I'm a friend of hers," John answered lamely.
An' if I ketch you 'angin' about 'ere, annoyin' 'er or anybody else I'll 'it you on the jawr, see, an' then I'll 'and you over to the police. An' that'll learn you!" John stared at the man. "Do you mean to say?..." "I mean to say wot I 'ave said," the liftman interjected. "An' I don't mean to say no more. 'Op it. That's all. Or it'll be the worse for you!"
"Throw it in the river," he answered. "Burn it. Do anything you like with it, but take it out of my sight!" As I descended to the street the liftman regarded me in a curious and rather significant way. Finally, just as I was about to step out into the hall: "Excuse me, sir," he said, having evidently decided that I was a fit person to converse with, "but are you a friend of Mr. Adderley's?"
I accompanied Adderley to his chambers, which were within a stone's throw of the spot where I had met him. That this gift for making himself unpopular with all and sundry, high and low, had not deserted him, was illustrated by the attitude of the liftman as we entered the hall of the chambers. He was barely civil to Adderley and even regarded myself with marked disfavour.
And he really believed that he was. What followed was due to the liftman. The impatient liftman, noticing that the pair were enjoying each other's company, made a disgraceful gesture behind their backs, slammed the gate, and ascended majestically alone in the lift towards some high altitude whence emanated an odour of boiled Spanish onions.
You must be content to be the actual looker-on, though you had better not abandon your inquiries altogether. I will put you up at the Cercle Anglais. It will serve to pass the time, and you may gain information at the most unlikely places. And now good-bye." The liftman thrust a pencilled note into Duncombe's hand as he ascended to his room. "From I do not know whom, Monsieur," he announced.
I can see... the shadow on the blind..." Convinced that Adderley's secret fears had driven him mad, I nevertheless felt called upon to attend to his urgent call, and without a moment's delay I hurried around to St. James's Street. The liftman was not on duty, the lower hall was in darkness, but I raced up the stairs and found to my astonishment that Adderley's door was wide open. "Adderley!"
I would give the Old Country another day to fit me into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for the Cape. My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place. There was a common staircase, with a porter and a liftman at the entrance, but there was no restaurant or anything of that sort, and each flat was quite shut off from the others.
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