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 dragoon it. At the end of that time she sat down at a table and took up a pen.

She had decided to send a letter to Saul Hartz saying that she wished particularly to see him on an urgent private matter. To this end she would invite him to come and drink tea in her new house at four o'clock on the following Friday or Saturday afternoon. Such a letter was not at all easy to write. More than one attempt had to be put in the waste paper basket before she came near saying in the right way the particular thing she wished to express.

With the letter composed at last more or less to her mind, she dropped it in the post box in the hall and went out of the Club. Turning into Bond Street, she walked as far as a locksmith's at the Oxford Street end. Here she sought advice as to the means of opening a patent Warlock fireproof safe, of which the key had been mislaid.

A duplicate key was the suggested remedy. Helen thereupon arranged that on the following afternoon at four o'clock—at which hour John was sure to be at the House or at one of his clubs—an expert should come to Brompton Square and see what could be done in the matter.