“So good of you to receive me, Mrs. Holloway,” Mr. Fielding said before Mrs. Bywater could speak. “And for agreeing to converse with me about the committee for the Foundling Hospital.” He regarded me neutrally, waiting for me to go along with whatever rigamarole he’d concocted for Mrs. Bywater.

Mrs. Bywater also rose. “How kind of you to consider contributing, Mrs. Holloway. It speaks well of your character.”

I tried to look modest. “The least I could do.”

“I came to tell her our latest ideas,” Mr. Fielding said, a man happy to find a willing donor for his cause. “Explain our mission, as I promised. There are many details.”

His glance at Mrs. Bywater implied that such details would be tedious for the lady of the house, who surely had better things to do. Mrs. Bywater, to my surprise, took his cue.

“I’ll leave you to it. Ring when you are ready to leave, Mr. Fielding, and Mr. Davis will see you out.”

“Excellent. Thank you.” Mr. Fielding would overdo the dithering, I feared, becoming like something from a music hall stage.

Mr. Davis, at his butler best, stood rigidly aside as Mrs. Bywater glided out of the room, then he closed the pocket doors and left me alone with Mr. Fielding.

“Lovely house,” he said admiringly, studying the furnishings and elegant bric-a-brac. “Not cluttered up with peacock feathers and preserved flowers under glass and other such rubbish.”

I remained in the middle of the room, hands at my sides. “I am pleased you approve,” I said coolly. “What did you wish to tell me, Mr. Fielding? Have you set appointments with those Lady Cynthia and Mr. Thanos met at the Foundling Hospital?”

“Not yet. Lady Cynthia agreed she would write to them and be every inch the earl’s daughter. We can only wait for their response.”

“Then what did you wish to say to me?”

I debated whether to impart what had happened to me the evening before in Seven Dials. The incident might have nothing to do with the Foundling Hospital, except as happening at the address arbitrarily chosen to throw Mr. Fielding off the scent. I also wanted to see if I could pry out of Mr. Fielding whether he had encountered the bullies himself, or had learned more than he’d let on.

Mr. Fielding turned his ingratiating smile upon me, his neatly trimmed beard emphasizing a flash of white teeth.

“I simply wondered if you’d turned up anything else in the awful business. You and Daniel left together yesterday, and he did not return.” His smile deepened. “You are rather intimate with him, are you not?”

I drew myself up. “I hope you are not insulting me, Mr. Fielding.”