Nevertheless, it was certain, in Appleyard's opinion, that he was in business, and paid scrupulous attention to his daily duties.
Over the edge of his newspaper he watched Rayner and Miss Slade meet, exchange a word or two, and retire to a corner of an inner lounge in which they often sat talking together.

He had often seen them talking together, and it had struck him that they seemed to talk with more than ordinary confidence.

The hunchback was on terms of easy familiarity with everybody in the house, and he had a remarkable range of topics.

He could talk sport, books, finance, politics, art, science, history, theology--the variety of his conversation was astonishing.

But Appleyard had begun to notice that he rarely talked to any single person with the exception of Miss Slade--he would join a group in smoking-room or drawing-room and enter gaily into whatever was being discussed, but he seemed to have no desire to hold a _tete-a-tete_ talk with any one except this young woman, who was now as much an object of mystery and speculation to Appleyard as he himself was.