"Do they—do they not look alike?" I gasped. "I thought—I imagined——"
"Louise Van Burnam look like that girl! O no, they were very different sort of women. What made you think there was any resemblance between them?"
I did not answer her; the structure I had reared with such care and circumspection had fallen about my ears and I lay gasping under the ruins.
XXV.
"THE RINGS! WHERE ARE THE RINGS?"
Had Mr. Gryce been present, I would have instantly triumphed over my disappointment, bottled up my chagrin, and been the inscrutable Amelia Butterworth before he could say, "Something has gone wrong with this woman!" But Mr. Gryce was not present, and though I did not betray the half I felt. I yet showed enough emotion for Miss Althorpe to remark:
"You seemed surprised by what I have told you. Has any one said that these two women were alike?"
Having to speak, I became myself again in a trice, and nodded vigorously.