"Just for a trifle of a key, you are going to get possession of the best book-shop in all Chelsea. Well, keep your eyes skinned and the wax ready, will you? And now, James, I'll be off."
"Oh, I say, Mr. Joseph, wait a moment!" James was beginning to realize what he had promised. "If anything dreadful should come of this? I don't know what is in the safe. There may be money as well as papers."
"James, do you think I would steal? Do you mean to insinuate that I am a thief, sir? Do you dare to suspect that I would take money?"
James certainly looked as if he had thought even that possible.
"I shall open the safe, take out the papers, read them, and put them back just as I found them. Will that do for you?"
He shook hands again, and took himself off.
At seven o'clock Mr. Emblem came down-stairs again.
"Has any one been?" he asked as usual.
"Only Mr. Joseph."