"I saw him do it," reiterated Kate. "I was in the little room with Mademoiselle Delrue. He came and unlocked the desk, shook all the papers out of it, and took them away with him."
"And what did he do with the desk?" asked Edina. "Did he leave it there?"
"I don't know. I think he took that away too."
"I wonder whether Frank would remember anything of it?" mused Edina. "Perhaps he put up the desk somewhere for safety, after taking the papers out of it: in some cupboard or closet?"
"Perhaps he did," added Mrs. Raynor. "It is so strange a thing that it cannot be found."
"I may as well walk over to Frank's, and hear what his recollections are upon the subject," said Edina after a pause.
"But you must be so tired, Edina, after that walk to Bayswater."
"Not very. I meant to iron the boy's collars and Charley's wristbands this evening, but I can do that to-morrow."
Mrs. Raynor made no further objection; and Edina set out. The visit of the banker seemed to have saddened rather than cheered her—as so unusual a little change in the monotony of their home life might have been expected to do. They all felt faint and weary with their depressing prospects. Were things to go on for life as they now were? It was a question they often asked themselves. And, for all they could see, the answer was—Yes. Even Edina at times lost heart, and indulged in a good cry in secret.
Matters were not in a much better state at Frank Raynor's. It is true no poverty was there, no privation; but the old happiness that existed between him and his wife had disappeared. Daisy was much changed. The once warm-hearted girl had become cold and silent, and frightfully apathetic. Her husband never received a kindly look from her, or heard a loving tone. She did not complain. She did not reproach him. She did not find fault with any earthly thing. She just went through life in a listless kind of manner, as if all interest had left her for ever. Frank put it down to dissatisfaction at their changed circumstances; to the obscure manner in which they lived. Ever and anon he would try to breathe a word of hope that things would be different sometime: but his wife never responded to it.