“Is that you, Miss Dartmouth?” he whispered.
“Yes,” came the reply. “I——”
“Hush!” he warned her. “I’ll be with you in a second.”
With a brief explanation to Juliette, he hastened downstairs and let himself out of the house. Pauline was already standing at the door.
“Anything happened?” he questioned her.
“Nothing has happened,” said Pauline, “but there is something extremely curious, all the same, in our house. It is a most singular thing that the housemaid, who never forgets anything, forgot just to-night to leave some milk in my room—a thing which I had specially reminded her to remember, so I rang the bell for her. There is a bell that communicates direct with her room—it used to be in Mrs. Ilam’s bedroom, but we have had it changed—there was no answer. I rang again. No answer. You know, I’m the sort of person that can’t stand that sort of thing from servants, so I went upstairs to her. She was not in her room. There are two beds in that room, the second one for the cook. Both beds were empty; they had neither of them been slept in. I went into the rooms of the other servants. They are all empty. Rosie and I and Mrs. Ilam are alone in the house.”
Carpentaria paused.
“Did you tell your sister?”
“No, I came straight here.”
“That was very discreet of you,” said Carpentaria.