“No. I never had any communication with Mr. Averill. I have never seen him.”
“Or with any one in the household; either by letter, telegram, telephone, personal interview or in any other way whatever?”
“Yes. I met Miss Averill accidentally on the day before the fire. Mrs. Oxley, the wife of a solicitor here, came round to the church where I am working to see about some stones she was buying, and Miss Averill was with her. Miss Averill was on her way to stay with some friends and I saw her to the station.”
“Did she give you the twenty-pound note?”
“She did nothing of the kind,” Whymper returned with some heat.
“Was Miss Averill the only member of the Starvel household with whom you communicated during the week before the fire?”
Whymper hesitated and appeared to be thinking.
“Well, Mr. Whymper?”
“I met Roper, Mr. Averill’s valet and general man, for a moment on the evening of the fire. We met by chance and merely wished each other good-evening.”
“Where did you meet him?”