"Talking of flats," she said, "have you heard of our piece of luck, Mr Parker? We've got a flat - at last! In Montagu Mansions."

"Well," said Parker, "I've always said there are plenty of flats - at a price!"

"Yes, but this isn't at a price. It's dirt cheap. Eighty pounds a year!"

"But - but Montagu Mansions is just off Knightsbridge, isn't it? Big handsome buildings. Or are you talking of a poor relation of the same name stuck in the slums somewhere?"

"No, it's the Knightsbridge one. That's what makes it so wonderful."

"Wonderful is the word! It's a blinking miracle. But there must be a catch somewhere. Big premium, I suppose?"

"No premium!"

"No prem-oh, hold my head, somebody!" groaned Parker.

"But we've got to buy the furniture," continued Mrs Robinson.

"Ah!" Parker brisked up. "I knew there was a catch!"

"For fifty pounds. And it's beautifully furnished!"

"I give it up," said Parker. "The present occupants must be lunatics with a taste for philanthropy." Mrs Robinson was looking a little troubled. A little pucker appeared between her dainty brows.

"It is queer, isn't it? You don't think that - that - the place is haunted?"

"Never heard of a haunted flat," declared Parker decisively.

"N-o." Mrs Robinson appeared far from convinced. "But there were several things about it all that struck me as - well, queer."

"For instance -" I suggested.

"Ah," said Parker, "our criminal expert's attention is aroused! Unburden yourself to him, Mrs Robinson. Hastings is a great unraveler of mysteries."

I laughed, embarrassed but not wholly displeased with the rôle thrust upon me.

"Oh, not really queer, Captain Hastings, but when we went to the agents, Stasser and Paul - we hadn't tried them before because they only have the expensive Mayfair flats, but we thought at any rate it would do no harm - everything they offered us was four and five hundred a year, or else huge premiums, and then, just as we were going, they mentioned that they had a flat at eighty, but that they doubted if it would be any good our going there, because it had been on their books some time and they had sent so many people to see it that it was almost sure to be taken - 'snapped up'

as the clerk put it - only people were so tiresome in not letting them know, and then they went on sending, and people get annoyed at being sent to a place that had, perhaps, been let some time." Mrs Robinson paused for some much needed breath, and then continued:

"We thanked him, and said that we quite understood it would probably be no good, but that we should like an order all the same - just in case. And we went there straightaway in a taxi, for, after all, you never know. No. 4 was on the second floor, and just as we were waiting for the lift, Elsie Ferguson - she's a friend of mine, Captain Hastings, and they are looking for a flat too - came hurrying down the stairs. 'Ahead of you for once, my dear,' she said. 'But it's no good. It's already let.' That seemed to finish it, but - well, as John said, the place was very cheap, we could afford to give more, and perhaps if we offered a premium - A horrid thing to do, of course, and I feel quite ashamed of telling you, but you know what flat-hunting is."