“Yes, sir.”

“You will go along with Mr. Harper, and supervise him.”

“Very good, sir.”

“Really, Mr. Browne,” Harper protested, “I think I am quite capable of doing a simple job like that without any assistance.”

“You may think so, Mr. Harper. Unfortunately, I do not. I have observed recently a certain regrettable—ah—laxity in your work. It is most undesirable in our class of business that we should be in any way—ah—lax. That is why I consider it necessary to send you to check the inventory, and Mr. Lewis to check you.”

With a faint snigger at his own attempted witticism Mr. Browne thereupon withdrew to his private office.

The two young men walked to Daylesford Gardens in thoroughly bad tempers. Harper had many reasons for feeling annoyed, among them the slight which had been put upon him and the consciousness that it was quite justified. Lewis, on his side, while pleased that the superior Harper had been “taken down a peg”, disliked being sent out on an unnecessary errand.

At the door, Lewis broke the silence in which they had walked together from the office.

“Have you got the key?” he asked.

“It would have been rather more useful if you had asked that question before we started,” replied Harper coldly. “As a matter of fact, I have.”

They passed inside.

“Have you got the inventory?” said Lewis.

This time Harper made no attempt to reply. He merely pulled a folded paper from his pocket and planted himself with his back to the door.

“You read them out and I’ll check them off,” said Lewis.

Harper shrugged his shoulders wearily, and in a tone of infinite disgust began to read: “Hall and passage. Five and a half yards green lino. . . .”

“Right.”

“Carved mahogany hat-stand. . . . God, why do people have such things?”

“Right.”

“Ebony-framed wall mirror. . . .”

“Right. No, it isn’t. One corner’s badly chipped.”

“Well, it doesn’t say so here.”

“Then it’s a dilapidation. Mark it down.”

Harper made a note. “Not that it’ll do much good to anybody,” he said, “as the tenant has gone abroad.”

“He had no call to go until he’d settled the dilapidations,” snapped Lewis. “Anyhow, we must protect our client. She’s got a right to claim for it. Put it down.”

“Oh, by all means,” said Harper in his most infuriating manner. “Shall we proceed? Japanese lacquer hanging cupboard. . . .”

The hall completed, they passed to the front room on the ground floor. It was not a large room, but grossly over-furnished, and checking its contents proved a long and laborious affair. Lewis found two further small dilapidations and a cheap brass ashtray which was not in the inventory, and gloated audibly at his own perspicacity. Harper’s impatience became more and more manifest until at last his companion’s conscientiousness was satisfied and allowed him to move on to the smoking-room.