But once in the room of the missing
girl, every consideration fled save that of professional pride and
curiosity. For almost at first blush, I saw that whether Mrs. Daniels
was correct or not in her surmises as to the manner of the girl's
disappearance, the fact that she had disappeared was likely to prove
an affair of some importance. For, let me state the facts in the
order in which I noticed them. The first thing that impressed me was,
that whatever Mrs. Daniels called her, this was no sewing girl's room
into which I now stepped. Plain as was the furniture in comparison
with the elaborate richness of the walls and ceiling, there were
still scattered through the room, which was large even for a thirty
foot house, articles of sufficient elegance to make the supposition
that it was the abode of an ordinary seamstress open to suspicion, if
no more.
Mrs. Daniels, seeing my look of surprise, hastened to provide some
explanation. "It is the room which has always been devoted to
sewing," said she; "and when Emily came, I thought it would be easier
to put up a bed here than to send her upstairs. She was a very nice
girl and disarranged nothing."
I glanced around on the writing-case lying open on a small table in
the centre of the room, on the vase half full of partly withered
roses, on the mantel-piece, the Shakespeare, and Macaulay's History
lying on the stand at my right, thought my own thoughts, but said
nothing.
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