"Do you live here, Mr. Vasson?" she asked as she slipped her shoulders out of the dripping mac.

He smiled his slow, friendly smile. "I work here sometimes. Odd jobs come to me!... Have you been far? You're not too wet I hope?"

Penny shook her head, but did not satisfy his curiosity.

Soon she slipped out and went into the hotel. There was nobody about, and as Jon should have had time to have washed himself by now, she crossed the lounge and started up the polished stairs. When she was halfway up she turned back and realised that her shoes were so wet that they were dirtying the wood that Fred had probably just been polishing. Better to carry her shoes! She sat down on the stairs with a sigh and had just got one off when a soft voice from above her said:

"Good morning, young lady. You, I think, must be Miss Penny? It would seem that since your arrival you spend most of your time on the stairs... Very singular, Miss Penny! Very odd!"

Penny was so surprised that she jumped up, slightly abashed for once and looking rather foolish. Her shoe rolled down the stairs with an awful clatter as she said:

"Oh, good morning... I just got my shoes a bit wet... It's rather a wet morning, isn't it?... How do you do? How did you know my name?"

It was, of course, Miss Ballinger's friend and the man who had been at the telephone last night. She felt certain that it must be Mr. Grandon, but she did want to make sure before she saw Jon. And so, standing halfway up the stairs, with one shoe off and her hair shining with the wet and her heart thumping with the excitement of the encounter, she asked him who he was.

He smiled at that. Rather a slinky sort of smile under his little black line of a moustache.

"I am Mr. Grandon and happy to make your acquaintance... I hope we shall be friends," he added with a little foreign bow.

So she had been right all the time, and there was some connection between Mr. Grandon and Miss Ballinger! She was nearly mistress of herself again as she ran up the stairs, carrying one shoe but forgetting the other. On the landing she flashed him one of her special smiles.

"I don't see why not," she said as she brushed past him.

"Miss Penny," he called softly. "Miss Penny, I hope I did not disturb you when I was at the telephone last night?"