"That's obviously true. It has become important since we lost it. It gave us some particulars that we find we can't remember."
Staffer gave her a scrutinizing look.
"It was dropped in the house," he said slowly. "Somebody must have found it."
Elsie wondered whether he suspected her. He had seen her looking down from the landing and might not have been satisfied that she had come to see who was in the house; the men had been careful to make no noise.
Staffer frowned when she did not answer.
"If the thing doesn't turn up," he declared, "I'll dismiss everybody about the place! We can't have people round us whom it's impossible to trust."
"None of the servants found it," Elsie said with forced quietness.
"You seem strangely sure of it!"
Elsie hesitated. She could not allow innocent people to suffer for what she had done; but the matter had greater issues. Though much was dark, it was clear that she and Andrew were on one side, and Staffer and his friends on the other. Andrew could be trusted, but Staffer could not. For all that, she felt the tie of kinship and could not act treacherously to him.
"I am sure," she said slowly, "because I found the envelope myself."