'I don't know the date. I only know the thing went from here, and just about the time I speak of. It wasn't delivered, you see. We've got to recover it.'
XXIII
She was as struck with the beauty of his plural pronoun as she had judged he might be with that of her own; but she knew now so well what she was about that she could almost play with him and with her new-born joy. 'You say "about the time you speak of." But I don't think you speak of an exact time—do you?'
He looked splendidly helpless. 'That's just what I want to find out. Don't you keep the old ones?—can't you look it up?'
Our young lady—still at Paddington—turned the question over. 'It wasn't delivered?'
'Yes, it was; yet, at the same time, don't you know? it wasn't.' He just hung back, but he brought it out. 'I mean it was intercepted, don't you know? and there was something in it.' He paused again and, as if to further his quest
