asty of maids-of-all-work, when she began to clear his
breakfast-table. He was congratulating himself on her final departure,
when she returned with a bundle of papers in her hand. 'I've been
meanin' to speak to you about these, this ever such a time,' she said.
'Binney, he said as I'd better, seeing as you've got his very rooms,
and me not liking to burn 'em, and the maids that careless about
papers and that, and not a line from him since he left.'

'It would certainly be better not to burn the rooms, unless they're
insured, Mrs. Binney, and I should be inclined to prefer their not
being burnt while I'm in them, unless you make a point of it,' said
Caffyn mildly.

'Lor, Mr. Caffyn, who was talking of burnin' rooms? You do talk so
ridiklus. It's these loose papers of Mr. 'Olroyd's as I came to speak
to you about, you bein' a friend of his, and they lyin' a burden on my
mind for many a day, and litterin' up all the place, and so afraid I
am as Sarah Ann'll take and light the fire with 'em one of these
mornings, and who knows whether they're not of value, and if so what
should I say if he came and asked me for 'em back again?'

'Well, he won't do that, Mrs. Binney, if it's true that he was drowned
in the "Mangalore," will he?'

'Drowned! and me never to hear it till this day. It's quite took me
aback. Poor dear gentleman, what an end for him--to go out all that
way only to be drowned! I do seem to be told of nothing but deaths and
dying this morning, for Binney's just 'eard that poor old Mr. Tapling,
at No. 5 opposite, was took off at last quite sudden late last night,
and he'd had a dropsy for years, and swell up he would into all manner
o' shapes as I've seen him doin' of it myself!'

'Well, I'll look over the papers for you, Mrs. Binney,' interrupted
Caffyn. 'I don't suppose there's anything of much importance, but I
can tell you what ought to be kept.' He would have solved her
difficulties by advising her to burn the whole of them, but for some
vague idea that he might be able to discover something amongst all
these documents which would throw some light upon Holroyd's relations
with Mark.

So when Mrs. Binney was at last prevailed on to leave him in peace, he
sat down with the sheaf of miscellaneous papers she had left him, and
began to examine them without much hope of discovering anything to the
purpose.

They seemed to be the accumulations of some years. There were rough
drafts of Latin and Greek verses,