"What's that?" she asked, absent-mindedly.
"You miss the mam'selle across the way a bit, I figure. You and her seemed pretty thick."
"Yes, I do miss her very much," acknowledged Patricia, actually glad to have any one to speak to on the subject. "But I'm awfully surprised that she went away so suddenly. I never even knew she was gone."
"You didn't, hey? Well, looka here! She gave me a message to give to you—that is, she meant it for a message, I reckon, only she didn't get it all off her mind."
"Oh, what was it?" cried Patricia, excitedly, her darkest suspicions of her friend vanishing at once. "I knew she would want to send some word to me."
"Well, it was this way. They sent down word to the office they was leavin', and for some one to come up and help bring down their hand luggage. So I went up to get 'em. The missus was bustlin' about good an' lively, but the gal was sort of teary and not doin' much. But when the little mam'selle handed me her grip,—the t'other one's back was turned for a minute,—she whispered to me low, 'Tell Miss Meade I'm going—' But she didn't get no further, 'cause the other one turned round quick like an' called me to come an' help her strap a bag. An' from that time till they left the place she never took her eyes offen the young 'un, an' she never got no chance to finish it up. But I thought I'd jest tell you that much, anyway."
"Oh, thank you so much for that, anyhow!" breathed Patricia. "But I can't understand why she was afraid to say it right out and let her aunt hear. It seems very strange."
"You needn't think that's the only queer thing about that pair," he hinted darkly. "I could tell you an earful if I chose!"
Patricia was just on the point of begging him to do so, when some delicate instinct bade her desist. Was it, after all, kind, or even honorable, to pry into the affairs of a friend, to hear "back-stair" gossip about them from a bell-boy in a hotel?
"Well, thank you very much for delivering the message," she remarked, "and please drop this letter in the mail-chute as you go out."