“I will, sir—from the beginning. On that morning when the papers were missing from Sir Robert’s safe I was awake very early—I often am. At that time I slept in the basement: it is only since that date and Sir Robert’s illness that I have occupied a room on this floor. I thought I heard a sound in the library just above. Later I had reason to believe it was the sliding of the panel that concealed the safe——”
“What time was this?”
“Just after five, sir. I had heard the clock strike. I went out and along to the foot of the stairs in the dark and then saw there was a light in the hall. Thinking there might be burglars, I felt in a stand that is there in the lower hall, took a thick stick, and went softly up the stairs. Just as I got to the top I saw my lady, in a green dressing-robe, pass up the stairs, and a moment later the light went out—there is a control switch on the first floor. I went back to bed, thinking my lady had been down for a book.
“It was not till the middle of the morning, nearly noon, that Sir Robert sent for me to the library and told me some papers were missing. Mr. Carling was there and they were both very upset—very upset indeed.”
“Did you tell Sir Robert what you had seen?”
“No, sir. I realize now that I ought to have done so, but at the moment I didn’t like to. Sir Robert told me not to say anything to anyone, and I did not. I went down and thought it over. I felt sure in my mind that my lady had the papers, whatever they were. I knew she was out—she had gone out about ten o’clock—so was her maid, Mam’selle Périer, who had been given the day out. I wondered if my lady had gone to Rivercourt Mansions.”
“How do you know she was in the habit of going there?”
“I had known it a long time, sir. I discovered the address almost by chance, from a letter.”
“Blotting paper?” asked Cummings-Browne dryly.