CHAPTER VI

THE TRAGEDY IN DUKE'S MANSIONS


I believe Beverley's exit from this life was a relief to his family.
Whether any very strenuous efforts were made to find Henley, I do not
know. Possibly the "Classical P's" are interrogated concerning him from
time to time, for they are still appearing at well-known watering places,
though whether Miss Day is still of the company, I cannot say.

I quickly forgot all about Henley, being absorbed in a new case, which
created considerable attention. At the outset it brought me in contact
with rather a fascinating character, a man whose personality sticks in
your memory.

He was an Italian by birth, cosmopolitan by circumstances, and by nature
something of an artist. Fate had ordained that he should be man-servant
to an English M.P.; he would have looked more at home in a Florentine
studio or in a Tuscany vineyard, but then Fate is responsible for many
incongruities.

In well-chosen words, and in dramatic fashion, he drew the picture for
me.

"The little dinner was over," he said, using his hands to illustrate his