“I’m not hiding,” Mr. Allingham said. “I’m by the statue. Sam Bennet, George Ring.”

George Ring bowed and bounced, rising a foot from the mattress.

He and Mr. Allingham could not see each other. Nobody could see the woman with the Spanish comb.

“I hope you’ve excused the room to Mr. Bennet,” George Ring said. He bounced a few steps in the direction of the hidden statue.

“I don’t think it needs any excusing, Mr. Ring,” Samuel said. “I’ve never seen such a comfortable room.”

“Oh, but it’s terrible.” George Ring was moving up and down rapidly now. “It’s very kind of you to say it’s comfortable, but look at the confusion. Just think of living here. You’ve got something on your finger, did you know that? Three guesses. It’s a bottle.” He shook his curls and laughed as he bounced.

“You don’t know anything yet,” said Mr. Allingham’s voice. The heavy bouncing had shaken down a carpet on to the hall-stand and he was hidden as though in another, lower room. “You don’t know anything about him. You wait. What are you bouncing for, George? People don’t go bouncing about like a ball as soon as they come into a room.”

“What I don’t know about you!” In one leap George Ring was standing directly below Samuel, craning up his curls.

“He doesn’t know where he’s going, for one thing. And he’s looking for a girl he doesn’t know called Lucille.”

“Why are you looking for her?” George Ring’s head touched the bath. “Did you see her picture in the paper?”

“No, I don’t know anything about her, but I want to see her because she’s the only person I know by name in London.”

“Now you know two more, don’t you? Are you sure you don’t love her?”

“Of course I’m sure.”

“I thought perhaps she might be a sort of Holy Grail. You know what I mean. A sort of ideal.”

“Go on, you big pussycat,” Mr. Allingham said. “Get me out of here.”

“Is this the first time you’ve come to London? I felt like that when I came up first, too. Years and years ago. I felt there was something I must find. I can’t explain it. Something just round the corner. I searched and searched. I was so innocent. I felt like a sort of knight.”

“Get me out of here,” Mr. Allingham said. “I feel like the whole room’s on top of me.”

“I never found it.” George Ring laughed and sighed and stroked the side of the bath. “Perhaps you’ll be lucky,” he said. “You’ll walk round the corner and there she’ll be. Lucille. Lucille. Is she on the telephone?”

“Yes. I’ve got her number in my book.”

“Oh, that makes it easier, doesn’t it? Come on, Rose,” he said. “I know exactly where you are. She’s in a pet.”