It may as well be said, en passant, that Emma was housemaid to the east wing; Harriet to the chambers on the first floor generally, mine included; Lizzy Dene to the west wing: but it would frequently be the pleasure of Lady Chandos that Lizzy did not enter her apartments for days together, only Hill.
"It was a memorandum-book; not a manuscript," said Mr. Chandos.
"Oh; I understood her to say a manuscript."
"I have not found it," he continued. "Fortunately the contents are of little consequence. They consist chiefly of notes relative to the everyday business of the estate, and a few private items concerning myself. Some things are entered in hieroglyphics of my own," he continued, with a half laugh, "and I'll defy the thief to make them out, however clever he may be. The singular thing is, how it could have disappeared from my locked desk."
"You must have left your keys out," she quickly said.
"That is more than likely. Having honest people about me at Chandos, I have not been over-particular."
"It is a bad practice to leave keys where they may be picked up and used; it gives opportunities that otherwise might never have been seized upon," observed Mrs. Penn, in a dreamy tone.
"Not a bit of it, madam. Unless dishonest people are at hand to take advantage of the opportunities."
"Then how do you think your book can have gone, Mr. Chandos?"
"Well, I cannot think. I am content to leave the elucidation to time."