"Miss Merrislate tells me that she didn’t trouble about the account as she supposed it was your affair."
"My affair!" exclaimed Lilian impulsively. "It’s no more my affair than anybody else’s." She surmised in the situation some ingenious malevolence of the flat-breasted mischief-maker.
"Yes. It came in while I was on duty that night, and I did it at once. There was no one else to do it."
"Certainly not. I didn’t know him from Adam."
"Never mind Adam, Miss Share," observed Miss Grig genially. "Has Lord Mackworth been in since?"
"If he has I’ve not seen him," Lilian answered defiantly.
Miss Grig’s geniality exasperated her because it did not deceive her.
"I’m only asking for information," Miss Grig said with a placatory smile. "I see the copies were delivered at six-thirty in the morning. Who delivered the job?"
"At his address. I dropped it into the letter-box on my way home after my night’s work. I stayed here because somebody had to stay, and I did the best I could."
"I’m quite sure of that," Miss Grig agreed. "And, of course, you’ve been paid for all overtime--and there’s been quite a good deal. We all do the best we can. At least, I hope so.... And you’ve never seen Lord Mackworth since?"
"And you simply dropped the envelope into the letter-box?"
"Didn’t see Lord Mackworth that morning?"
By this time Lilian was convinced that Miss Grig’s intention was to provoke her to open resentment. She guessed also that Milly must have deliberately kept silence to her, Lilian, about the Mackworth account in the hope of trouble on Miss Grig’s return, and that Milly had done everything she could that morning to ensure trouble. The pot had been simmering in secret for weeks; now it was boiling over. She felt helpless and furious.
"You know," Miss Grig proceeded, "there’s a rule in this office that night-work must only be delivered by hand by the day-staff the next day. If it’s wanted urgently before the day-staff arrives the customer must fetch it."
"Excuse me, Miss Grig, I never heard of that rule."
Miss Grig smiled again: "Well, at any rate, it was your business to have heard of it, my dear. Everybody else knows about it."
"I told Mr. Grig I was going to deliver it myself, and he didn’t say anything."