“Yes, quite so,” Roger put in soothingly. “Shocking business! But what did the tidying up consist of, Mary? I mean, if it was only cursory you might not have noticed the pen. What did you do exactly?”
“Well, sir, I put the chairs straight and tidied up the cigarette ends in the hearth and emptied the ashtrays.”
“What about the settee? I remember sitting on the settee with the pen in my hand.”
“It wasn’t there then, sir,” Mary said with decision. “I took up all the cushions and shook them, and there wasn’t anything there. I should have noticed it if there had been.”
“I see. You did the settee quite thoroughly, in fact? Brushed it, and all that sort of thing?”
“Yes, sir. I always run a brush over the settee and the armchairs of an evening. They get so terribly dusty with all those windows, and that black rep shows the dust up something awful.”
“Well, thank you, Mary. I suppose I must have left it somewhere else, after all. By the way, you haven’t done the library at all to-day, have you?”
“No, sir,” Mary replied with a little shiver. “Nor wouldn’t like to; not alone, at all events. Creepy, I should call it, sir, with that poor gentleman sitting there all night like a——”
“Yes, yes,” said Roger with mechanical haste. “Shocking! Well, I’m sorry to have brought you all this way for nothing, Mary; but if you ever come across it, you might let me know.”
“Yes, sir,” Mary said with a pleasant smile. “Thank you, sir.”