"there isn't any key, you know. All that about the deposited extra manuscript is just a little fairy-tale I made up. You see, after I'd handed over the manuscript of 'Edgar and Lilian' to Bisham, it occurred to me that he might burn it, so as to prevent me from having any evidence of having written the book. It was too late of course to get it back and make the copy I ought to have made before letting it go out of my possession; so I did the next best thing, viz:—told him that I had a copy banked in the Sloane Street Deposit. It worked too. You both swallowed the tale, but there wasn't a single word of truth in it from beginning to end."
"Indeed?" Chloë screamed passionately. "Then let me tell you, you horrible old liar, that there's not a single word of truth from beginning to end of my story that they've offered you the Bishopric of
