"Yes; I was in the church."
"Were you? How glad I am I did not know it," almost involuntarily.
There was a little pause; then Vera asked him if he was going to Walpole Lodge.
"Eventually; but I have come back here to look for something. My brother has lost a little Russia-leather case; he thinks he may have dropped it in the church; there were two ten-pound notes in it. I am going in to look for it. Why, what is that in your hand? I believe that is the very thing."
"I—I—just picked it up," stammered Vera. She began searching in the pockets of the case. "I did not think there was anything in it. Yes, here are the notes, quite safe."
She took them out and gave them to him. He held out his hand mechanically for the case also.
"Thank you; you have saved me the trouble of looking for it. I will take it back to him at once."
But she could not part with her treasure; it was all she had got of him.
"The letter-case is very shabby," she said, crimsoning with a painful confusion. "I do not think he can want it at all; it is quite worn out."
Sir John looked at her with a slight surprise.