tom of the box lay about five shillings' worth of
coppers, not a single silver coin remaining behind.

"Ah!" ejaculated Hazel, and a chill of horror ran through her, followed
by a peculiar sinking sensation of dread. Where was the money left in
her charge--where were the contents of those little packets which she
had so carefully tied up and entered? Not one remained untouched, for
the box had been opened, and she had been robbed!

No: it was impossible. Who could know of the existence of that money?
Strangers might know that she received the money weekly, but no one
would be aware of the fact that she placed it in that box, locked it,
and then locked the box in her drawer.

She must have made some mistake. It was impossible that she could have
been robbed. It was a mistake certainly, and she hurriedly turned out
the contents of the box upon the bed, and counted up the pence first--
four shillings and ninepence. Then there were the empty papers.

Hazel put her hand to her head, feeling bewildered, and wondering
whether she had not made some strange mistake. Did she know what she
was doing, or was her memory failing from over-study?

Making a determined effort to be cool, she took the papers, arranged
them by their dates, and checked them off by the statement which she had
drawn up, to find that they tallied exactly; but when she had done that
she was no further than before, and at last she stood there in a state
of helpless despair, face to face with the fact that she had at last
been called upon to give an account of her stewardship and the moneys
that should have been ready for handing over to the churchwarden were
gone.

Hazel sank down upon the floor with her hands clenched and her brain
dizzy, to try and think out the meaning of this strange problem.

She recalled that she had had other difficult questions to solve before
now--puzzles that had seemed perfectly insurmountable, but that they had
grown less formidable by degrees, and the difficulties had been
surmounted. Perhaps, then, this would prove less black after a time,
and she would make out how it was.

Had she paid anybody? taken any of the money? given change?

No; she could recollect nothing, and in place of growing clearer, the
problem grew momentarily more and more confused.

Her brow became full of wrinkles, her head more giddy, and as she
crouched upon the floor with the empty money-box upon the bed, and the
candle that stood upon th