day for a year past. They had discussed the minster that both loved so
well, within whose walls both were occupied; they had discussed the
nebuly coat, and the Blandamers, and Miss Euphemia. There was only one
subject which they did not discuss--namely, Miss Anastasia Joliffe,
though she was very often in the thoughts of both.

It was all over now, yet every day Westray found himself making a mental
note to tell this to Mr Sharnall, to ask Mr Sharnall's advice on that,
and then remembering that there is no knowledge in the grave. The gaunt
Hand of God was ten times gaunter now that there was no lodger on the
ground-floor. Footfalls sounded more hollow at night on the stone steps
of the staircase, and Miss Joliffe and Anastasia went early to bed.

"Let us go upstairs, my dear," Miss Euphemia would say when the chimes
sounded a quarter to ten. "These long evenings are so lonely, are they
not? and be sure you see that the windows are properly hasped." And
then they hurried through the hall, and went up the staircase together
side by side, as if they were afraid to be separated by a single step.
Even Westray knew something of the same feeling when he returned late at
night to the cavernous great house. He tried to put his hand as quickly
as he might upon the matchbox, which lay ready for him on the
marble-topped sideboard in the dark hall; and sometimes when he had lit
the candle would instinctively glance at the door of Mr Sharnall's
room, half expecting to see it open, and the old face look out that had
so often greeted him on such occasions. Miss Joliffe had made no
attempt to find a new lodger. No "Apartments to Let" was put in the
window, and such chattels as Mr Sharnall possessed remained exactly as
he left them. Only one thing was moved--the collection of Martin
Joliffe's papers, and these Westray had taken upstairs to his own room.

When they opened the dead man's bureau with the keys found in his pocket
to see whether he had left any will or instructions, there was
discovered in one of the drawers a note addressed to Westray. It was
dated a fortnight before his death, and was very short:

"_If I go away and am not heard of, or if anything happens to me, get
hold of Martin Joliffe's papers at once. Take them up to your own room,
lock them up, and don't let them out of your hands. Tell Miss Joliffe
it is my wish, and she will hand them over to you. Be very careful
there isn't a fire, or lest they sho