To his great surprise, the door was ajar, and when he put down the candle on the table he had a passing fancy that the thick curtains that were drawn over one of the windows moved slightly, as though from a draught of air.

He blamed himself afterwards that he had not gone up to the window and examined it, but in his perturbed mood he did not take much notice; but he was certainly startled when he turned round to see Leah, in her dark dressing-gown, standing in the threshold watching him with a queer look in her eyes.

There was something in her expression that made him feel uneasy.
'"I thought it was thieves," she said, and now she looked not at him, but across at the curtain.

"What are you doing with master's papers, Mr.
Eric ?" '"Mind your own business," returned Eric sulkily: "do you think I am going to account to you for my actions ?" And he took up his candlestick and marched off.' 'And he left that woman in possession ?' 'Yes,' returned Gladys in a peculiar tone, and then she hurried on: 'The next morning Giles missed a cheque for a large amount that he had received the previous night and placed in one of the compartments of his desk, and in its place he found Eric's letter.

Do you notice the discrepancy here?
Eric vowed to me that he had placed the letter on the desk, that he never dreamt of opening it, that he always believed Giles kept it locked, that if Giles had been careless and left the key in it he knew nothing about it.