i left the house a little after eight o’clock this morning in the character of a groom out of work. there is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. be one of them, and you will know all that there is to know. i soon found briony lodge. it is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but built out in front right up to the road, two stories. chubb lock to the door. large sitting-room on the right side, well furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those preposterous english window fasteners which a child could open. behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window could be reached from the top of the coach-house. i walked round it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without noting anything else of interest.