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nquired when they were first missed.
"That very evening," said Mary. "Rose always puts them away herself. She missed the two little cases at once. One was a coin of Velia, with a head of Athene--"
"I remember it perfectly," said Meynell. "It dropped on the floor when I was talking to Norham--and I picked it up--with another, if I remember right--a Hermes!"
Mary replied that the Hermes too was missing--that both were exceedingly rare; and that in the spring a buyer for the Louvre had offered Hugh four hundred pounds for the two.
"They feel most unhappy and uncomfortable about it. None of the servants seems to have gone into that room during the party. Rose put all the coins on the table herself. She remembers saying good-bye to Canon France and his sister in the drawing-room--and two or three others--and immediately afterward she went into the green drawing-room to lock up the coins. There were two missing."
"She doesn't remember who had been in the room?"
"She vaguely remembers seeing two or three people go in and out--the Bishop!--Canon Dornal!"
They both laughed. Then Meynell's face set sharply. A sudden recollection shot through his mind. He beheld the figure of a sallow, dark-haired young man slipping--alone--through the doorway of the green drawing-room. And this image in the mind touched and fired others, like a spark running through dead leaves....
* * * * *
When he had gone, Catharine turned to Mary, and Mary, running, wound her arms close round her mother, and lay her head on Catharine's breast.
"You angel!--you darling!" she said, and raising her mother's hand she kissed it passionately.
Catharine's eyes filled with tears, and her heart with mingled joy and revolt. Then, quickly, she asked herself as she stood there in her child's embrace whether she should speak of a certain event--certain experience--which had, in truth, though Mary knew nothing of it, vitally affected both their lives.
But she could not bring herself