CHAPTER VII
The Men on the Stairs
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The rooms—two in number—occupied by Alec Forsyth in John Street, Adelphi, were in a house let off in bachelor chambers, with the exception of the ground floor, which was used as an office by a firm of wholesale wine-merchants. The young Scotsman’s limited income had precluded a more aristocratic locality; and, at any rate, John Street offered the advantage of being within a few minutes’ walk of his daily work in Downing Street.
In the daytime, when the tenants were out at their various avocations, the upper part of the dingy old building was deserted, save by the housekeeper in the attics; while the counting-house abutting on the street was all life and bustle. At night the conditions were reversed, the wine-merchant’s premises being locked up and silent, and the rooms above occupied.
On the evening of that Monday on which the Duke of Beaumanoir called on the Sher-
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