"Perhaps Mrs. Bunton took it?" I suggested.
"I'm sure she didn't," he replied.
"Perhaps Mrs. Leeson has it?" I said.
But she had not. The last time she had seen it it was on the table after
Mrs. Bunton copied the title.
Leeson was so utterly dejected that I felt almost sorry for him.
"Well," he said at last, "that's the strangest thing I ever heard of. What
a disappointment! I did want you to hear it."
But it was precisely because I didn't that in my own pocket was the
volume's present hiding-place. When the front door had closed behind me
half-an-hour later, I slipped it into the letter-box.
* * * * *