He entered the house, and, with his hat in his hand, put the one straight question on his lips.
"Is Miss Mackinnon here?"
A great light broke over Agnes Fraser's mind. She nodded silently, pointing to the dining-room, and followed him in.
"This is God-sent, Mr. Drummond. I wad hae written to the Glen the day if ye hadna come."
"But what is wrong? I hope Miss Mackinnon is not ill?" he said with eager apprehension.
"Not ill in her body, though she has got very thin. But will you not sit down, and I will tell you? She is not in the hoose at this very meenit, though I think I can tell ye whaur to find her."
Neil took the chair and waited for all that he might hear.
"She has been in this hoose, sir--let me see--ten weeks a'thegither, coontin' frae the time she cam' first. Three weeks of that time she was at that queer hoose in Hans Crescent."
"What queer house?"
Agnes then grasped the fact that nobody in Glenogle or Balquhidder knew aught of Isla's movements since she had come to London, and she proceeded in her own terse and graphic way to describe them.