"You're right," cried Madge. "Come along with me, Irene, and Miss Julian will advise us what to do. Dinner must wait for once."
Irene followed her willingly, for to do her justice, she was ready enough to own up to the ignominy of prying into another girl's correspondence if by doing so she might prevent them all from walking into a trap carefully laid for them. Nat and Glenda, too anxious to trouble about breaking the rules of punctuality at meals, followed them instead of making for the dining-hall, and waited in the passage while they entered the Principal's sanctum.
Miss Julian listened patiently as Irene repeated her story, and though she was doubtless very much amazed at hearing such an extraordinary tale she showed few signs of it in her quiet face, and quickly grasped the essential points of the case from Irene's sketchy and incoherent narrative.
"Allison must go unless we can verify beyond any doubt the falsity of the summons," she said with decision, as soon as Irene had finished. "However, I expect I can learn the truth from Monica herself. Will you fetch her, Madge? But no, wait one moment. Do you know if Allison's people are on the 'phone?"
Madge started forward, her eyes lighting up. "Why, yes, Miss Julian, I am sure they are. I never thought of the 'phone."
Miss Julian smiled as she lifted down her telephone directory, and her fingers swiftly turned over the pages. "It is the most obvious and the simplest expedients that usually are overlooked, Madge," she remarked, "especially by highly intellectual people. Yes, I have the number." She turned to the telephone by the wall. "Irene, find Allison and bring her here, please. Should the telegram prove genuine, there will still be time for her to catch her train, if the telephone exchange do not keep us waiting too long."
Irene ran off. Five slow minutes ticked by while the two in the room waited, Miss Julian in undisturbed calm—outwardly, at any rate—Madge in a fever of impatience which she could hardly control. At last the telephone bell rang sharply and Miss Julian picked up the receiver with a murmured: "We are fortunate, after all." Just then Irene burst with scant ceremony into the room, to halt and stand in silence as the Principal began to speak into the mouthpiece.
"This is the Principal of St. Etheldreda's. Who am I addressing? No, you need not disturb him. I only wish to know how Mrs. Ravenel is... Ah, yes... You see, Allison has received a telegram summoning her at once to London, on account of her mother's sudden illness... Yes, this morning, handed in at Victoria... Yes, we had reason to believe it a bogus telegram... No, but I think it will be easy to find out... Then there is no need for Allison to come?... Ah, thank you, that is all I wanted to know. Perhaps Allison can ring you up for herself later on. Good morning."
As she finished she wheeled round sharply. "You were right, Irene. Allison's people have no knowledge of the telegram. Where is Allison? Has she gone?"
"Yes, Miss Julian," Irene hastened to say. "She had just left the dining-room when I got there. I hurried to her study and her cubicle, but she wasn't there. Then one of the maids told me she had already set off for the station."