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would be hanging in the wardrobe, his shirts and other garments placed in the chest of drawers.
    D’Arcy Rowland walked to the dressing table. He pulled open one of the small drawers and gave an exclamation.
    “Just as I thought! Your father’s gold watch! This should be worth a fair amount!”
    As he spoke, he drew from the drawer the gold watch and chain that Sir Richard had always worn.
    It gave Belinda a sharp pain to see it grasped in her stepfather’s hands.
    But she knew there was no use in protesting and saying it was something she would like to keep.
    D’Arcy Rowland put the watch down on the dressing table.
    He started to open the other boxes the drawer contained.
    There were several pairs of gold cufflinks and a set of elaborate and obviously expensive waistcoat buttons.
    He regarded the two pearl studs with satisfaction.
    “Well, it is better than nothing!” he remarked.
    “At least it will give us the money to pay the servants,” Belinda said quickly.
    Her stepfather hesitated.
    She knew that he was thinking that his need was greater than theirs.
    Then, almost as if her father told her what to do, she opened another small drawer on the other side of the dressing table.
    In it was her father’s notecase. He had always carried it in the inside pocket of his coat.
    She opened it and gave an exclamation.
    There were three notes in it, two of ten pounds and one of five.
    Without speaking she showed her stepfather what she had found.
    “Twenty-five quid!” he exclaimed. “Well, thank God, at least we will not starve!”
    Belinda put the notes down on the table and looked further into the drawer.
    She remembered that her father before he undressed always took the loose change out of his pockets and put it into one of the drawers.
    She looked and, as she expected, there were three sovereigns and several florins behind the notecase.
    These too she placed on the dressing table, saying,
    “I insist, before we do anything else, that we pay the shopkeepers in the village what we owe, and give Bates and Mrs. Bates their wages.”
    She thought her stepfather was going to refuse and continued,
    “I know that is what Mama would want us to do. What happens in London is your business, but the local shopkeepers cannot afford to give credit and we cannot deprive the Bateses when they have been with us for so many years.”
    Expecting an argument, she was surprised when her stepfather replied,
    “You are quite right, Belinda. After all, it is your father’s money and you must do with it as you think best. But if I could have the watch and the cufflinks, I can ‘keep the wolves at bay’ until you find out what I want to know about Logan.”
    Belinda could not help thinking that it was a rather forlorn hope.
    However, she was relieved that she had not to fight him over the money for the village shops and the servants.
    She picked up the notecase and the loose change from in the drawer.
    He was looking avidly round the room.
    It was then he noticed that in one corner was a stand with a collection of walking canes in it. Belinda’s father had bought them in various parts of the world when he had travelled before he had married.
    There was only one amongst them that he used ordinarily.
    D’Arcy Rowland walked across the room to examine them.
    “These are interesting,” he remarked, “and should certainly fetch a tidy sum from a collector.”
    “Then take them with you to London,” Belinda suggested.
    Even as she spoke, she knew that she could not bear to discuss her father’s belongings with him any further.
    Carrying the money in her hand, she went from the room, down the stairs and into the kitchen.
    Mrs. Bates was washing up and Bates, in his shirtsleeves, was drying the dishes as she handed them to him.
    They looked up in surprise as Belinda entered.
    “I have brought you your wages,” she said, “and my stepfather apologises for having kept you waiting for so long and I think there is enough here to pay