Page:The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916).djvu/140

"I like pretty things around me," said Kara, and somehow the complacency of the remark annoyed the detective more than anything that Kara had ever said to him.

The Greek went to the mantlepiece, and taking down a silver cigarette box, opened and offered it to his visitor. Kara was wearing a grey lounge suit, and although grey is a very trying colour for a foreigner to wear, this suit fitted his splendid figure and gave him just that bulk which he needed.

"You are a most suspicious man, Mr. Meredith," he smiled.

"Suspicions? I?" asked the innocent T. X.

Kara nodded.

"I am sure you want to enquire into the character of all my present staff. I am perfectly satisfied that you will never be at rest until you learn the antecedents of my cook, my valet, my secretary—"

T. X. held up his hand with a laugh.

"Spare me," he said. "It is one of my failings, I admit, but I have never gone much farther into