"Not for an instant."
"Since there was something amiss, why did your daughter not confide in you?"
"I have asked myself the same question. I am utterly unable to answer it."
"She was in the habit of coming to you with her troubles?"
"Always. There was the most perfect confidence between us."
"And yet she concealed this?"
"She did not conceal it!" she protested. "She could not have concealed it from my eyes, even had she wished to. There was nothing to conceal. There was absolutely nothing wrong the last time I saw her."
"And that was?"
"Only a few minutes before she disappeared."
"Will you tell me just what happened?" I suggested, as gently as I could. "Every detail you can remember."