"Miss Gillespie?"
"Ah, that's she! Wouldn't have thought it of her--would you?"
"What's she done?"
"Done! Bolted, that's all!--bolted slick away, no one knows where!"
"What on earth for?"
"No one knows that either. Rummest thing is, that she hasn't taken anything with her--anything of anybody else's, I mean. Now, if she'd walked off with some of that little Hammond woman's swell clothes, or jool'ry, one could understand it; but she's left a lot of her own behind."
"Did she give no hint of this? Has she left no explanation?"
"Well, I don't know about explanation. She's left a note for Mrs. Hammond, which I've got in my pocket. Mrs. Hammond gave it to Mitford, and he sent for me and handed it over, and asked me what I thought of it."
"It's not private, I suppose. May I look at it?"
"By all means--nothing private about it. Can't conceive why Mitford gave it to me. I can do nothing with it." So saying Captain Bligh took out the little scrap of paper from his waistcoat pocket, and handed it to Alsager.