Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/31

 home to his tea at six o'clock, and he'd be writing and reading in his room till ten or eleven. Always at that sort of work he was—studying I suppose."

"Do you know anything about his relations, or his friends?" asked Wedgwood.

"I don't, mister. He never had anybody to see him here—never! And I never heard him mention any relations. To be sure, he wasn't one for a great deal of talk. No—I couldn't say anything about that."

"How was he off as regards money?" enquired the detective.

"Well, he always paid me regular," said the landlady. "Every Saturday morning, after breakfast, there was his money, down on the nail! I never remember him being short. He seemed to be what you might call comfortable."

"Did he ever go away—for a holiday, or anything of that sort?"

"He didn't! All the three years he was here, I never knew him go away but once, mister, and that was recently. He was away the better part of a fortnight; in fact, he'd only just come home again. Business, he said—but of course I don't know where or what it was."

"I should like to see his room," said Wedgwood. "We want to find out if he has any relations, and where they're to be heard of."