“No professional could have pinched those papers better,” said Anthony. “May I ask, without indiscretion, what has become of them?”

“Between gentlemen,” began the Baron.

“You are too kind, Baron,” murmured Anthony. “I’ve never been called a gentleman so often as I have in the last forty-eight hours.”

“I to you say this⁠—I believe them to be burnt.”

“You believe, but you don’t know, eh? Is that it?”

“His Highness in his own keeping retained them. His purpose it was to read them and then by the fire to destroy them.”

“I see,” said Anthony. “All the same, they are not the kind of light literature you’d skim through in half an hour.”