Mr. Moze, hurrying too fast to meet the Bishop of Colchester, had met a greater than the Bishop.
Audrey glanced an instant with a sick qualm at the outlines of the shape beneath the tarpaulin, and ran.
In the dining-room, over the speck of fire, Mrs. Moze and Miss Ingate were locked in a deep intimate gossip.
“Mother!” cried Audrey, and then sank like a sack.
“Why! The little thing’s fainted!” Miss Ingate exclaimed in a voice suddenly hoarse.
CHAPTER III
THE LEGACY
Audrey and Miss Ingate were in the late Mathew Moze’s study, fascinated—as much unconsciously as consciously—by the thing which since its owner’s death had grown every hour more mysterious and more formidable—the safe. It was a fine afternoon. The secondary but still grandiose enigma of the affair, Mr. Cowl, could be heard walking methodically on the gravel in the garden. Mr. Cowl was the secretary of the National Reformation Society.
Suddenly the irregular sound of crunching receded.