“The horse and trap were to have come this week, but for some reason they were not delivered, and again I had to cycle to the station.  That was this morning.  You can think that I looked out when I came to Charlington Heath, and there, sure enough, was the man, exactly as he had been the two weeks before.  He always kept so far from me that I could not clearly see his face, but it was certainly someone whom I did not know.  He was dressed in a dark suit with a cloth cap.  The only thing about his face that I could clearly see was his dark beard.  To-day I was not alarmed, but I was filled with curiosity, and I determined to find out who he was and what he wanted.  I slowed down my machine, but he slowed down his.  Then I stopped altogether, but he stopped also.  Then I laid a trap for him.  There is a sharp turning of the road, and I pedalled very quickly round this, and then I stopped and waited.  I expected him to shoot round and pass me before he could stop.  But he never appeared.  Then I went back and looked round the corner.  I could see a mile of road, but he was not on it.  To make it the more extraordinary, there was no side road at this point down which he could have gone.”

Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands.  “This case certainly presents some features of its own,” said he.  “How much time elapsed between your turning the corner and your discovery that the road was clear?”

“Two or three minutes.”

“Then he could not have retreated down the road, and you say that there are no side roads?”

“None.”

“Then he certainly took a footpath on one side or the other.”

“It could not have been on the side of the heath, or I should have seen him.”

“So, by the process of exclusion, we arrive at the fact that he made his way toward Charlington Hall, which, as I understand, is situated in its own grounds on one side of the road.  Anything else?”

“Nothing, Mr. Holmes, save that I was so perplexed that I felt I should not be happy until I had seen you and had your advice.”

Holmes sat in silence for some little time.

“Where is the gentleman to whom you are engaged?” he asked at last.

“He is in the Midland Electrical Company, at Coventry.”

“He would not pay you a surprise visit?”

“Oh, Mr. Holmes!  As if I should not know him!”

“Have you had any other admirers?”

“Several before I knew Cyril.”

“And since?”

“There was this dreadful man, Woodley, if you can call him an admirer.”

“No one else?”

Our fair client seemed a little confused.

“Who was he?” asked Holmes.

“Oh, it may be a mere fancy of mine; but it had seemed to me sometimes that my employer, Mr. Carruthers, takes a great deal of interest in me.  We are thrown rather together.  I play his accompaniments in the evening.  He has never said anything.  He is a perfect gentleman.  But a girl always knows.”