that he had not gone up to the window and examined
it, but in his perturbed mood he did not take much notice; but he was
certainly startled when he turned round to see Leah, in her dark
dressing-gown, standing in the threshold watching him with a queer look
in her eyes. There was something in her expression that made him feel
uneasy.

'"I thought it was thieves," she said, and now she looked not at him, but
across at the curtain. "What are you doing with master's papers, Mr.
Eric?"

'"Mind your own business," returned Eric sulkily: "do you think I am
going to account to you for my actions?" And he took up his candlestick
and marched off.'

'And he left that woman in possession?'

'Yes,' returned Gladys in a peculiar tone, and then she hurried on:
'The next morning Giles missed a cheque for a large amount that he had
received the previous night and placed in one of the compartments of
his desk, and in its place he found Eric's letter. Do you notice the
discrepancy here? Eric vowed to me that he had placed the letter on the
desk, that he never dreamt of opening it, that he always believed Giles
kept it locked, that if Giles had been careless and left the key in it
he knew nothing about it. His business to the study was to put his letter
where Giles would be likely to find it on entering the room. Ursula, how
did that letter get into the desk?

'We were all summoned to the study when the cheque was missed. Etta
fetched me. She said very little, and looked unusually pale. Giles was in
a terrible state of anger, she informed me, and Leah was speaking to him.

'Alas! she had been speaking to some purpose. I found Eric almost dumb
with fury. Giles had refused to believe his assertion of innocence, and
he had no proof. Leah's statement had been overwhelming, and bore the
outward stamp of veracity.

'She told her master that, thinking she heard a noise, and being fearful
of thieves, she had crept down in her dressing-gown to the study, and, to
her horror, had seen Mr. Eric with his hand in his brother's desk, and
she could take her oath that he put some paper or other in his pocket.
She had not liked to disturb her master, not knowing that there was money
in the case.

'Ursula, I cannot tell you any more that passed. That woman had
effectually blackened my poor boy's honour. No one believed his word,
though he swore that he was innocent. I heard high words pass between
the brothers. I know Giles called Eric a liar and