All this was interesting, but the clew began and ended at the manager's office door, and no further trace of Adelina was found during the day.
About nine o'clock that evening Maria, the parlour maid at the school, knocked at Belinda's door in a fine state of excitement.
"If you please, Miss Carewe, Miss Wilson's come back. I let her in and she's gone up to her room, and Miss Ryder ain't here, and she looks fit to drop, and her face is that swollen from crying, and——"
Belinda cut the monologue short and hurried down to the front room on the third floor.
It was dark, but by the gleam from the street lamps the teacher made out a bulky form on the bed, and the sound of stifled sobbing came to her ears.
She went over and knelt by the bed.
"I'm glad you've come back, dear," she said in a cheerful, matter-of-fact voice. "Your father will be so relieved, and it isn't quite right for a girl to be alone in a big city, you know."
The figure on the bed gave a convulsive flop and the sobbing redoubled.
"Don't cry any more. It will make you ill. Nothing very bad has happened, has it?"
Belinda was still prosaically cheerful.