“She couldn’t have been down the cellar all that time!” said Marjorie. “Lily and I know that!”
“Could she possibly have been covered up by some of the packing—or hidden away in a dark corner,” suggested Ethel.
“No—we searched everywhere!”
“Then you don’t think she is telling the truth?” asked Alice.
“No, I don’t!” said Marjorie. “She has been some place that she doesn’t want us to know about!”
“How suspicious you are, Marj!” laughed Jack.
“The spirit explanation isn’t possible?” asked Lily.
This opened a new topic of speculation, and the young people continued to discuss the affair from every possible angle, until Marie Louise, who had been summoned to the telephone soon after Anna went to bed, returned to the room and interrupted the conversation by a startling announcement.
“That phone call,” she said, “was from a reporter, and I gave him the whole story.”
“Yes,” said Marjorie. “But how did you put it—what explanation did you give?”