She looked steadily at him.
"Earle," she asked, in a low pained voice, "are you still thinking of going in search of her?"
He remembered the morning's interview, and would have felt some little relief if he could have shared the secret with Mattie; but he said:
"Yes, I am still determined, and, to tell you a secret that I do not intend telling any one else. I intend to go this very day."
He saw her lips whiten and quiver as though from some sudden, sharp pain, but it never struck him that this quiet, kindly girl had enshrined him in her heart of hearts. She was quicker of instinct when any wish of his was in question than at any other time. Suddenly she raised her eyes to his face, and he saw in them the dawn of a new idea.
"There is one person," she said, "whom we have quite overlooked, and who is very likely to have helped Doris."
"Who is that?" he asked quickly.
"The artist, Gregory Leslie."
And they looked at each other in silence, each feeling sure that the right chord had been struck. Then Earle said, gravely:
"Strange! but I never once thought of him."