At any rate, the bottle and its label gave me no more useful hint than it might be worth while to call on Mr.Fox and make inquiries; and something told me very emphatically that this was not what it had conveyed to Thorndyke.
These reflections occupied me until the omnibus, having rumbled over London Bridge and up King William Street, joined the converging streams of traffic at the Mansion House.

Here I got down and changed to an omnibus bound for Kensington; on which I travelled westward pleasantly enough, looking down into the teeming streets and whiling away the time by meditating upon the very agreeable afternoon that I promised myself, and considering how far my new arrangement with Thorndyke would justify me in entering into certain domestic engagements of a highly interesting kind.
What might have happened under other circumstances it is impossible to tell and useless to speculate; the fact is that my journey ended in a disappointment.

I arrived, all agog, at the familiar house in Endsley Gardens only to be told by a sympathetic housemaid that the family was out; that Mrs.Hornby had gone into the country and would not be home until night, and--which mattered a good deal more to me--that her niece, Miss Juliet Gibson, had accompanied her.
Now a man who drops into lunch without announcing his intention or previously ascertaining those of his friends has no right to quarrel with fate if he finds an empty house.

Thus philosophically I reflected as I turned away from the house in profound discontent, demanding of the universe in general why Mrs.Hornby need have perversely chosen my first free day to go gadding into the country, and above all, why she must needs spirit away the fair Juliet.

This was the crowning misfortune (for I could have endured the absence of the elder lady with commendable fortitude), and since I could not immediately return to the Temple it left me a mere waif and stray for the time being.
Instinct--of the kind that manifests itself especially about one o'clock in the afternoon--impelled me in the direction of Brompton Road, and finally landed me at a table in a large restaurant apparently adjusted to the needs of ladies who had come from a distance to engage in the feminine sport of shopping.