These papers were replaced in their drawer, and the search continued.
The third drawer upon that side was locked, so with rather a significant smile Mrs. Belassis tried the first on the next side. This opened readily enough, but merely contained a supply of writing-paper, envelopes, stamps, and pens, which, by its orderly appearance, seemed to have been given over to Maud’s willing care. The drawer below contained the farm-books, the garden-book and the stable-book, which had been kept with scrupulous exactness by old Mr. Maynard, and which his successor had taken some apparent pains to keep in their old accuracy under a new régime.
The third drawer, again, was locked.
‘These must be the two that I want,’ said Mrs. Belassis under her breath; and again she glanced towards the door, as though she would have liked to lock it, but considered it more prudent to abstain.
A looker-on might have been tempted to wonder how Mrs. Belassis proposed to get at the contents of those locked drawers. Was she going to force the locks? Not at all. Whatever her husband might be, Mrs. Belassis was never clumsy. What she undertook to do, was done neatly, and even artistically.
Ladies of some social standing do not usually visit their friends’ houses with skeleton-keys hidden away in their pockets; but it was nothing more nor less than this useful little implement that Mrs. Belassis drew out now; and with the snake-like look more visible than ever in her eyes, she set about her task.
Kneeling down upon the floor, she soon had the first drawer open, and had taken from thence the documents it held.
There was Phil’s cheque-book first of all, and then a few papers folded and held together by an elastic band. There was a bag, which evidently held some money, and behind all these some papers and relics, which were evidently all that had come to him from the effects of the father and mother. Belassis had taken care that such mementoes should be but few.
The cheque-book first claimed Mrs. Belassis’ earnest attention. She studied the counterfoils closely, and then began comparing the sums with the amounts upon the bills she had previously found. Naturally they corresponded accurately enough; but what Mrs. Belassis noticed was this, that for at least six bills (all presents for Maud) which were specified to have been settled ‘by cheque,’ no counterfoil was to be found: and this fact seemed significant of something, though of what she could not yet say.
Next the family relics were contemptuously turned over, and put back in their place, and Mrs. Belassis now commenced the study of the papers enclosed by the elastic band.