Sisily was somewhere in London, at that moment walking alone among its countless hordes, perhaps thinking of him.

He would find her--he must! Where to commence?
She had reached Paddington only a few nights ago, so that was obviously the logical starting-point of any inquiries.

To Paddington he went, this time in a taxi-cab.
He had an extraordinary initial piece of luck.

Fortune, either regretting her previous treatment or tantalizing him in feminine fashion with the expectation of greater favours to come, threw him at the very outset of his inquiries against the red-headed luggage porter who had spoken with Sisily on her arrival from Penzance.

The porter, leaning against the white enamelled walls of a Tube passage, pictured the scene with much loquacity, and a faithful recollection of his own share in the interview.