I--I could almost swear you shall have
anything in reason which you require; only the girl must be found and
soon."
"Have you thought," proceeded Mr. Gryce, utterly ignoring the wildness
of these statements, "that the girl may come back herself if let
alone?"
"She will come back if she can," quoth Mrs. Daniels.
"Did she seem so well satisfied with her home as to warrant you in
saying that?"
"She liked her home, but she loved me," returned the woman steadily.
"She loved me so well she would never have gone as she did without
being forced. Yes," said she, "though she made no outcry and stopped
to put on her bonnet and shawl. She was not a girl to make a fuss. If
they had killed her outright, she would never have uttered a cry."
"Why do you say they?"
"Because I am confident I heard more than one man's voice in her
room."
"Humph! Would you know those voices if you heard them again?"
"No."
There was a surprise in this last negative which Mr. Gryce evidently
noticed.
"I ask," said he, "because I have been told that Mr. Blake lately kept
a body servant who has been seen to look at this girl more than once,
when she has passed him on the stairs."
Mrs. Daniels' face turned scarlet with rage and she hastily rose from
the chair. "I don't believe it," said she; "Henry was a man who knew
his place, and--I won't hear such things," she suddenly exclaimed;
"Emily was--was a lady, and--"
"Well, well," interposed Mr.
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