“What if you cannot find them, Thomas?” asked Janet.
“Then we must make good the loss.”
“Is it a heavy amount?”
“Yes.”
Janet looked startled. Thomas’s grave manner did not tend to reassure her. She gave utterance to some half-spoken words.
“It is a heavy amount as a loss,” explained Thomas. “In fact, it is a large sum in itself. It would cost us over sixteen thousand pounds to make it good.”
Janet lifted her hands in dismay. “And all from the loss of a single packet of deeds?”
“Even so.”
“But how can they have been lost?”
“There it is,” said Thomas Godolphin. “If we could tell as much as that, it would be some satisfaction. We cannot imagine how or when they were lost. George missed them a month ago; but——”