and quickly closed it again. In that
momentary glimpse of the contents it seemed to him that he had unearthed
a dead man's secret. For in addition to a pile of letters he had seen a
woman's glove; a knot of ribbon; some faded flowers.

"That's it," he said hurriedly, shutting down the lid and affecting to
have seen nothing. "I'll take the key off the bunch."

Mrs. Saumarez took the key from him in silence, relocked the cabinet,
and carried it over to a safe let in to the wall of the room.

"Thank you, Mr. Brent," she said. "I'm glad to have those letters."

Brent made as if to leave. But he suddenly turned on her.

"You know a lot," he remarked brusquely. "What's your opinion about my
cousin's murder?"

Mrs. Saumarez remained silent so long that he spoke again.

"Do you think, from what you've seen of things in this town, that it was
what we may call political?" he asked. "A--removal?"

He was watching her closely, and he saw the violet eyes grow sombre, and
a certain hardness settle about the lines of the well-shaped mouth and
chin.

"It's this!" she said suddenly. "I told you just now that this town is
rotten--rotten and corrupt, as so many of these little old-world English
boroughs are! _He_ knew it, poor fellow; he's steadily been finding it
out ever since he came here. I dare say you, coming from London, a great
city, wouldn't understand, but it's this way: this town is run by a
gang, the members of which manoeuvre everything for their own and
their friends' benefit, their friends and their hangers-on, their
associates, their toadies. They----"

"Do you mean the Town Trustees?" asked Brent.

"Not wholly," replied Mrs. Saumarez. "But all that Epplewhite said
to-day about the Town Trustees is true. The three men control the
financial affairs of the borough. Wallingford, by long and patient
investigation, had come to know _how_ they controlled them, and how
utterly corrupt and rotten the whole financial administration is. If you
could see some of the letters of his which I have in that safe----"

"Wouldn't it be well to produce them?" suggested Brent.

"Not yet anyway," she said. "I'll consider that--much of it's general
statement, not particular accusation. But the Town Trustees question is
not all. Until very recently, when a Reform party gradually got into
being and increased steadily--though it's still in a minority--the whole
representation and administration of the borough was hopelessly bad and
u