Mary Beatrice drew herself up with grave dignity, saying, “I suppose your mistress is where she likes to be. I know nothing of her, but I have no doubt that you will soon hear of her.”
There was something in the Queen’s manner that hushed the outcry in her presence, but the women, with Lady Clarendon foremost of them, continued to seek up and down the two palaces as if they thought the substantial person of the Princess Anne could be hidden in a cupboard.
Anne, in the first impulse, exclaimed, “She is gone!”
In a moment Mrs. Royer turned, “Gone, did you say? Do you know it?”
“You knew it and kept it secret!” cried Lady Strickland.
“A traitor too!” said Lady Oglethorpe, in her vehement Irish tone. “I would not have thought it of Nanny Moore’s daughter!” and she turned her eyes in sad reproach on Anne.
“If you know, tell me where she is gone,” cried Mrs. Buss, and the cry was re-echoed by the other women, while Anne’s startled “I cannot tell! I do not know!” was unheeded.
Only the Queen raising her hand gravely said, “Silence! What is this?”
“Miss Woodford knew.”
“And never told!” cried the babble of voices.