On hearing that I was the person inquired for, he requested five minutes' conversation with me.

I showed him into the little empty room at the back of the house, and waited, rather surprised and fluttered, to hear what he had to say.
He was a dark man, with a serious manner, and a short, stern way of speaking I was certain that he was a stranger, and yet there seemed something in his face not unfamiliar to me.

He began by taking a newspaper from his pocket, and asking me if I was the person who had given evidence at the trial of Noah Truscott on a charge of manslaughter.

I answered immediately that I was.
"I have been for nearly two years in London seeking Mary Mallinson, and always seeking her in vain," he said.

"The first and only news I have had of her I found in the newspaper report of the trial yesterday." He still spoke calmly, but there was something in the look of his eyes which showed me that he was suffering in spirit.