“Well, he hasn’t, and that I do know,” she replied. “No one’s been here for weeks till Miss Grale come ’ome—if you like to call it ’ome—two nights ago. She wrote to Mr. Sutton and asked him to get someone to come in and do a bit of cleaning and bring the laundry in, and that, and as I was an old friend, so to speak, Mr. Sutton told me to do what I could. ’E gave me the keys, and I come in and found piles of letters on the floor, mostly bills. If you’ve written to him here, you’ll likely find your own letter on the bookshelf there. Miss Grale hasn’t sent them on yet. I reckon no one had been in the place for weeks, you could see by the dust on the floor. You mightn’t believe it, but I’ve dusted till I’m tired, and it’s all as bad as ever in two-twos.”
Macdonald got up and glanced through t
