Mr.Ireland and his family, therefore, occupied the whole of it.
"As for the business premises, they were, and, in fact, are, of the usual pattern; an office with its rows of desks, clerks, and cashiers, and beyond, through a glass door, the manager's private room, with the ponderous safe, and desk, and so on.
"The private room has a door into the hall of the house, so that the manager is not obliged to go out into the street in order to go to business.

There are no living-rooms on the ground floor, and the house has no basement.
"I am obliged to put all these architectural details before you, though they may sound rather dry and uninteresting, but they are really necessary in order to make my argument clear.
"At night, of course, the bank premises are barred and bolted against the street, and as an additional precaution there is always a night watchman in the office.

As I mentioned before, there is only a glass door between the office and the manager's private room.

This, of course, accounted for the fact that the night watchman heard all that he did hear, on that memorable night, and so helped further to entangle the thread of that impenetrable mystery.
"Mr.Ireland as a rule went into his office every morning a little before ten o'clock, but on that particular morning, for some reason which he never could or would explain, he went down before having his breakfast at about nine o'clock.

Mrs.Ireland stated subsequently that, not hearing him return, she sent the servant down to tell the master that breakfast was getting cold.