pronounce the motor-car utterly valueless, and to complain of his own
liver. Audrey had legs; she had a tongue; she could articulate. Neither
wish nor power was lacking in her to give Aguilar the supreme experience of
his career. And yet she did not walk up to him and say: "Aguilar, please
take a week's notice." Why? The question puzzled her and lowered her
opinion of herself.

She was similarly absurd in the paramount matter of the safe. The safe
could not be opened. The village, having been thrilled by four stirring
days of the most precious and rare fever, had suffered much after the
funeral from a severe reaction of dullness. It would have suffered much
more had the fact not escaped that the safe could not be opened. In the
deep depression of the day following the funeral the village could still
say to itself: "Romance and excitement are not yet over, for the key of the
Moze safe is lost, and the will is in the safe!"

The village did not know that there were two keys to the safe and that they
were both lost. Nobody knew that except Audrey and Miss Ingate and Mr.
Cowl. The official key was lost because Mr. Moze's key-ring was lost. The
theory was that it had been jerked out of his pocket in the accident.
Persistent search for it had been unsuccessful. As for the unofficial or
duplicate key, Audrey could not remember where she had put it after her
burglary, the conclusion of which had been disturbed by Miss Ingate. At one
moment she was quite sure that she had left the key in the safe, but at
another moment she was equally sure that she was holding the key in her
right hand (the bank-notes being in her left) when Miss Ingate entered the
room; at still another moment she was almost convinced that before Miss
Ingate's arrival she had run to the desk and slipped the key back into its
drawer. In any case the second key was irretrievable. She discussed the
dilemma very fully with Miss Ingate, who had obligingly come to stay in the