"I was utterly staggered; I didn't
say anything. What inquiries ought I to have made?"
Pedgift Junior cleared his throat, and crossed his legs in a
strictly professional manner.
"I have no wish, Mr. Armadale," he began, "to inquire into your
business with Mrs. Mandeville--"
"No," interposed Allan, bluntly; "I hope you won't inquire into
that. My business with Mrs. Mandeville must remain a secret."
"But," pursued Pedgift, laying down the law with the forefinger
of one hand on the outstretched palm of the other, "I may,
perhaps, be allowed to ask generally whether your business with
Mrs. Mandeville is of a nature to interest you in tracing her
from Kingsdown Crescent to her present residence?"
"Certainly!" said Allan. "I have a very particular reason for
wishing to see her."
"In that case, sir," returned Pedgift Junior, "there were two
obvious questions which you ought to have asked, to begin
with--namely, on what date Mrs. Mandeville left, and how she
left. Having discovered this, you should have ascertained next
under what domestic circumstances she went away--whether there
was a misunderstanding with anybody; say a difficulty about money
matters.
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