Alice was beginning to see its meaning.
'And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. Turner had a considerable sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year.'
"You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid the dangers which encompass me."
"I am all attention, madam."
"My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who is to be our companion in to-night's adventure."
"We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know at what hour he came in, but when I came down.
"You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have just called myself is not exactly my own."