"
After a silence he began--
"Well--" and made a gesture to imply that the enigma baffled him.
"I give it up!" breathed Rachel intimately. "I fairly give it up!"
"And of course that was the cause of her attack?" he said suddenly, as
if the idea had just occurred to him.
Rachel nodded--"Evidently."
"Well," said he, "I'll look in again during the afternoon. I must
be getting along for my grub." He was hoping that he had not
unintentionally brought about his aunt's death.
"Not had your dinner!" she cried. "Why! It's after half-past two!"
"Oh, well, you know ... Saturday...."
"I shall get you a bit of dinner here," she said. "And then perhaps
Mrs. Maldon will be waking up. Yes," she repeated, positively, "I
shall get you a bit of dinner here, myself. Mrs. Maldon would not be
at all pleased if I didn't."
"I'm frightfully hungry," he admitted.
And he was.
When she had left the parlour he perceived evidences here and there
that she had been hunting up hill and down dale for the notes; and he
went into the back room with an earnest, examining air, as though
he might find part of the missing hoard, after all, in some niche
overlooked by Rachel. He would have preferred to think that Mrs.
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