“I didn’t even know that,” she whispered, “And about me. Our family home has been in one of the suburbs here since I was a small girl. For several years I was sent East to school, and after that I went abroad with some friends. And since then——”
“It can’t be so very long,” he whispered, “though you speak as though it were decades.”
“It is six years. Since then my father and I have spent our winters in the East, coming back home for the summers. Just think how much you are learning about me!”
Orme lifted her hand to his lips.
Suddenly the room filled with a light which to their expanded pupils seemed bright as the sun. The door had been opened and an electric light in the reception-hall shone in. Framed in the doorway was the outline of a man.
Orme shouted joyfully and jumped to his feet.
“Why—what——?” the man began.
Orme helped the girl up, and together they went to the outer light. For a moment they could do nothing but breathe, so good the fresh air of the reception-room seemed to them. Then, looking at the man again, Orme saw that it was the clerk to whom Alcatrante had made his accusation two hours before.
“How did you come to be in there?” the clerk demanded.
Orme hesitated; then he decided to make no charges. “I got rid of that crazy fellow who was following me around,” he said, “and I came back, and this young lady and I went in to examine your refrigerator. The door was ajar, and someone pushed it shut and locked it. We should have smothered if you had not come.”