Chapter Eighteen
The remnants of Mrs. Daventry’s ill-fated curse-book made for a pitiful pile of ash, when it came down to it.
Gussie and Mr. Ballantine — and Great-Aunt Honoria, apparently far more interested in the setting of fires than the extinguishing of them — took the charred and smoking fragment out into a yard at the back of the Bow-street office, rather than attempting a final burning of it inside. ‘For,’ as Gussie pointed out, ‘if the thing should take it into its head to revive at the crucial moment, your charming headquarters would be toast by tea-time.’
Mr. Ballantine, still mightily ogrish, took charge of keeping the Book in its appointed spot, while Gussie set the fire. She had a tinderbox, and all the aid Great-Aunt Honoria’s head could give her by way of hearty puffs u
