"No: not in my desk. Do you wish to know where it was?"
"What does that matter, so found?" cried Lettice joyously. "So long as the wrong person cannot be blamed."
"Not much fear of that—now!" declared Theodosia hardily, gazing past Lettice. "I should say that it mattered a good deal—to the person in whose box it was hidden."
[CHAPTER XIII.]
THE VALENTINES AGAIN.
DR. BRYANT made a hasty movement. "What do you mean? Where did you find the note?"
"You are not likely to guess."
"Guess! Nonsense. This is no matter for jesting. Where was it?" A vague alarm had seized him, and he was in danger of losing his usual equanimity.
"I advised you once to have Lettice's room searched, and you would not hear me. So I took the matter into my own hands, and on the whole I consider that I have managed it pretty cleverly. If she had had the least notion beforehand—well, naturally, the note might have found its way elsewhere." The keen and angry sting of conscience, following upon these words, found no expression in Theodosia's face. "I took care not to speak of the keys till the last moment. What her object was I cannot so much as guess—keeping it hidden away all this time. No good to herself or anybody."
"Lettice!" The word was rather a groan than an utterance.