"Ah!" said Mr. Polly, and squared himself to his egg. "Was there an
inquest on that chap?"
"What chap?"
"What was his name?--Polly!"
"Of course."
"You're sure it was him?"
"What you mean?"
Annie looked at him hard, and suddenly his soul was black with terror.
"Who else could it have been--in the very cloes 'e wore?"
"Of course," said Mr. Polly, and began his egg. He was so agitated
that he only realised its condition when he was half way through it
and Annie safely downstairs.
"Lord!" he said, reaching out hastily for the pepper. "One of
Miriam's! Management! I haven't tasted such an egg for five years....
Wonder where she gets them! Picks them out, I suppose!"
He abandoned it for its fellow.
Except for a slight mustiness the second egg was very palatable
indeed. He was getting on to the bottom of it as Miriam came in. He
looked up. "Nice afternoon," he said at her stare, and perceived she
knew him at once by the gesture and the voice. She went white and shut
the door behind her. She looked as though she was going to faint. Mr.
Polly sprang up quickly and handed her a chair. "My God!" she
whispered, and crumpled up rather than sat down.
"It's _you_" she said.
"No," said Mr. Polly very earnestly. "It isn't. It just looks like me.
That's all."
"I _knew_ that man wasn't you--all along. I tried to think it was. I
tried to think perhaps the water had altered your wrists and feet and
the colour of your hair."
"Ah!"
"I'd always feared you'd come back."
Mr. Polly sat down by his egg. "I haven't come back," he said very
earnestly. "Don't you think it."
"'Ow we'll pay back the insurance now I _don't_ know." She was
weeping. She produced a handkerchief and covered her face.
"Look here, Miriam," said Mr. Polly. "I haven't come back and I'm not
coming back. I'm--I'm a Visitant from Another World. You shut up about
me and I'll shut up about myself. I came back because I thought you
might be hard up or in trouble or some silly thing like that. Now I
see you again--I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied completely. See? I'm going
to absquatulate, see? Hey Presto right away."
He turned to his tea for a moment, finished his cup noisily, stood up.
"Don't you think you're going to see me again," he said, "for you
ain't."
He moved to the door.
"That _was_ a tasty egg," he said, hovered for a second and vanished.
Annie was in the shop.
"The missus has had a bit of a shock," he remarked. "Got some sort of
fancy about a ghost. Can't make it out quite. So Long!"
And he had gone.