The words suggested the girl.
"But where is Esther?" she exclaimed.
"Sure enough!" said O'Flannigan. "What has become of Miss Woodville?"
Different suppositions were offered. She must have become frightened; she must have been separated from them by the crowd.
"But she must be sought! She must be found!" cried Mrs. Marsham.
"How was she dressed?" inquired the man in the turban.
Mrs. Marsham described her niece's costume.
"Useless to search for her. Miss Woodville has been carried off, or, rather, she has followed her abductor of her own free will. I divined that all this ridiculous rumpus had but one object,—to daze you and distract your attention. At the moment that I came to your relief I saw with my own eyes a brown domino with blue ribbons going towards one of the doors on the arm of a masked gentleman."
"Esther! It is impossible, sir!"
"I beg your pardon, madam. And I can go further: I can give you the name of her abductor."