Edgar Wallace

“ She looked at him suspiciously. “The family skeleton,” she replied steadily. “Now come back and finish your tea.”
She was perturbed, and Smith wondered what there was in that mysterious cupboard, which she was so anxious to hide. And what had amused her so when he had told her that he had been shadowing Mr. Ross? She was a Strange girl. He did not understand her, and what he did not understand worried him.
“The family skeleton,” she said unexpectedly after a long silence. “There are a lot of skeletons in this family, Mr. Smith.”
“There are in most families,” said Smith lamely. ”

“ The judge used to pay all my expenses and the cost of the upkeep of the house, and give me an allowance every month when I was old enough to have an allowance; and generally he acted as father's agent. Well, while Mr. Valentine was away in Europe, the old judge died suddenly and his practice passed into the hands of strangers. ”

“ CHAPTER X. THE LADY WHO MODELED. Smith drove up to No. 409 Portland Place. Mr. Valentine was out, the pompous footman told him, and would not be back until late that evening. Was the young lady in? Yes, she was. Would he ask her to be kind enough to see him, asked Smith, and gave him a card inscribed “Lord Henry Jones”—one of those comic visiting cards which one uses on the Continent with such effect, the French being wholly ignorant of the fact that nobody could be called “Lord Henry Jones” and live. ”

“ I rather fancy that at the time of his death the judge was not acting for father at all, because my money used to come through the Farmers' Bank, and I suppose that the new lawyer, finding his office cluttered up with old boxes, thought he would make a clean sweep, so father's effects came back to me. ”