The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-09-28
CHAPTER V.

LEANING BACK WITH A QUEENLY REposE.
When. next day, Sir Richard Fordyce call.
ed on Mr. Gripper, the latter fancied he
could detect marked change in his visitors
face. lie appeared to be full ten years older.
He looked haggard and i'll, and his manner
was absent and confused.
Very little time was occupied by the
transaction of business. Mr.. Gripper ex-
planned that his associate was out looking
up evidence, and that he believed he had
got some clue to the mystery, but at present
could say nothing definite.
by the way, Sir Richard, said the agent,
there is the card You left yesterday. We
did not make use of it. This evening, be-
lieve, you give dance-party. If you can
find employment for an extra hand TO wait
at table, Mr. Greengrayes is your man.
Sure enough, that afternoon, Mr. Green
graves, in suit of glossy black, with pair
of clean white thread gloves in his coat tail
pocket, and a pair of thin-sOled shoes upon
his feet put in an appearance at Fulham,
presented his credentials, and straightway
proceeded to make himself extremely agree
able in the kitchen, although it must be al
lowed that the first offer of his assistance
caused some surprise to the servants. They
very easily came to the conclusion that
extra help was quite necessary though UNI
expected, and passed over the greater part of
the work to Mr. Greengrayes, without
murmur.
Thus was it that the quick-Sighted and
qulck-eared detective was that evening here,
there, and everywhere, picking up great
variety of information which might, some
time or other, turn up useful, but which at
present he could make little out Of The
dinner itself was solemn affair, and COM
mencing at eight, dragged on its weary
course until quarter to ten and quarter
past that hour, when the gentlemen had
joined the ladies upstairs, the detective,
with cat-like tread, and the gravest of grave
faces, was handing round the tea and coffee.
The company was divided into small
groups, and a low murmur of conversation
was carried on, with occasionally smile
never laugh. Almost in the centre of the
room, very upright, with his head little
thrown back, and the gaslight falling upon
| his silvery hair, and high polished forehead,
stood Fordyce, speaking slowly and impress
lively, whilst some half-dozen men around
him were listening with rapt attention and
respect. 1t was some abstruSe theory of ma
| tional morality he was expounding, and in
the name OF all that Christian men held
sacred, this theory should be put into prac-
| tice.
Tea or coffee, sir?' said q soft voice at
his elbow, and the color came and went in
Sir Richard Fordyce's face.
The ladies of the company were mostly
| gathered together in one group round an
easy-chair-the easiest-ndeed, almost the
only easy-char worthy Of the name that the
room contained, for 1t was furnished with
real, genuine Queen Anne furnture-in
which Lady Fordyce was seated. The de-
tective's watchful eyes settled many times
upon the half-recumbent figure of the mis-
tress of the house.
Leaning back there with queenly repose,
and an air of gently suffering loneliness,
from which now and again at most faint
smile might be wrung, she was in truth a
beautiful picture, her delicate face half hid
den in the soft shadow of the fan, clasped
by a jewelled hand, the stones of which gilt
tered in the gaslght.
Very little she said, but the ladies around
her were talking mild nonsense about recent
fashionable tetes, pcture.galeres, new
books, and things they had read in the news
papers, to which she seemed to listen lam
guidly, now and again putting in word.
Mr.. Greengraves, silently gliding to and
fro, had eyes for all this
Presently loud knock was heard at the
outer door, and few moments later mill.
tary-looking man entered the room, came
towards the hostess, who half rose to receive
him, rendering him, Greengraves noticed
her left hand. The visitor seemed to notice