‘I told you that weeks ago,’ said Lombard. ‘Barralty is as clever as the devil. But what about the rest of him — besides his mind?’
‘I’m coming to that. That was the thing I most wanted to know about, and it wasn’t easy to get cross-bearings. I had to dive into queer worlds and half-worlds and, as I’ve already said, I found that my unfortunate liking for low society came in useful. I found out most of what I wanted, but it has been a long job and not a particularly pleasant one. One piece of luck I had. There was bound to be a woman somewhere, and I scraped up acquaintance with Barralty’s particular friend. She’s a lovely creature, a red-haired Jewess, who just missed coming off as a film-star. Heaven knows what her real name is, but she calls herself Lydia Ludlow.’
‘She came to tea at F
