"Oh, Mr. Etheridge, is it you?" she cried. "I thought—I understood——" She did not say what, but her relieved manner made quite an impression on Frank, although it was, of course, impossible for him to suspect what a dangerous deed she had been contemplating at that very moment.
"Are the young ladies well?" he asked, in his haste to be relieved from his anxiety.
"Oh, yes, quite well," she admitted, somewhat mysteriously. "They are in there," she added, pointing to the parlor on the left.
Frank and Edgar looked at each other. They had always before this been received in the cheerful sitting-room.
"If something is not soon done to make Miss Hermione leave the house," Doris whispered passionately to Frank as she passed him, "there will be worse trouble here than there has ever been before."
"What do you mean?" he demanded, gliding swiftly after her and catching her by the arm just as she reached the back hall.
"Go in and see," said she, "and when you come out tell me what success you have had. For if you fail, then——"
"Then what——"
"Providence must interpose to help you."
She was looking straight at him, but that glance told him nothing. He thought her words strange and her conduct strange, but everything was strange in this house, and not having the key to her thoughts, the word Providence did not greatly startle him.