Gibbs shook his head emphatically and decisively. "No one has access to the office unless in my presence, sir; not a creature."
"The fact is," said Algernon, slowly, "that I have missed one or two papers of my own lately; matters of no consequence. God knows why anyone should have thought it worth while to take them! But they're gone."
Gibbs looked up with serious alarm in his face.
"Dear me, sir!" he exclaimed; "dear me, Mr. Errington! I wish you had mentioned this before."
"Oh well, you know, I thought I might be mistaken. I hate being on the watch about trifles. But latterly I am quite sure that papers have disappeared from my secretaire."
"From that little cabinet with drawers in it, that stands in your room?"
"Exactly."
"But—I was under the impression that you kept that carefully locked!"
Algernon laughed outright. "What a fellow you are, Gibbs! Fancy my keeping anything carefully locked! The fact is, it is as often open as shut. Only a few days ago, for instance, Mrs. Errington mentioned to me that she found it unlocked when she was here——" He stopped as if struck by a sudden thought, and turned his eyes away from Gibbs, who was looking up at him with the same uneasy expression on his face. "By-the-way, Mrs. Errington did not stay very long here, did she?" asked Algernon, with a degree of marked embarrassment very unusual in him. It was an embarrassment so ingeniously displayed that one might almost have suspected he wished it to be observed.
"When do you mean, sir? Mrs. Errington comes very often; very often indeed."