Not merely did Harringford hold the receipt for the
money and the mortgage-deeds cancelled, but the cheque he had given to
the mortgagee bore the endorsement--"Robert Elmsdale"; while the clerk
who cashed it stated that Mr. Elmsdale presented the order in person,
and that to him he handed the notes.
Whatever he had done with the money, no notes were to be found; a
diligent search of the strong room produced nothing more important than
the discovery of a cash-box containing three hundred pounds; the
title-deeds of River Hall--such being the modest name by which Mr.
Elmsdale had elected to have his residence distinguished; the leases
relating to some small cottages near Barnes; all the letters his wife
had ever written to him; two locks of her hair, one given before
marriage, the other cut after her death; a curl severed from the head of
my "baby daughter"; quantities of receipts--and nothing more.
"I wonder he can rest in his grave," said Miss Blake, when at last she
began to realize, in a dim sort of way, the position of affairs.
According to the River Hall servants' version, Mr. Elmsdale did anything
rather than rest in his grave. About the time the new mourning had been
altered to fit perfectly, a nervous housemaid, who began perhaps to find
the house dull, mooted the question as to whether "master walked.
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