The very next day he found out, quite by accident. He was going to lunch
at the Eagle House with a rather important client and he hurried home
to put on a clean collar and his cherished white flannel trousers, worn
only on semi-official occasions. Minnie was taking a bath, so he didn’t
even call out to ask her where his things were. She wouldn’t have known
anyway. He was accustomed to searching patiently for every article when
it was required.
He went through his own bureau drawers and his own closet in vain; then
he went to look in Minnie’s appalling wardrobe.
On the shelf there, lying on a piece of newspaper, behind her best hat,
lay half a cold leg of lamb.
A corpse could scarcely have terrified him more. In a panic he seized
his cap and rushed out of the house as he was; and Minnie never knew he
had been home at all.