"If you could keep the name of the school out of the scandal it would be worth your while," she said in a low voice.
The detective nodded.
"I'll try; but I guess the papers will get it one way or another. Don't let anyone touch Liz's trunks. I'll be up to go through them just as soon as I've finished here."
For the first time, Mademoiselle faced Belinda and the wide-eyed girls.
"Ces chères demoiselles! Cette superbe Mees Ryder! Bah! It was too easy. I mention a duchess, a countess. The lofty Mees Ryder falls upon my neck. I tell stories of the French noblemen who have adored me, persecuted me with their devotion until I fled from France; poor but honest. The little schoolgirls gulp it all down and beg for more. Oh, but they are stupid—these respectable people. You have my sympathy, Mademoiselle Carewe. You must live among them. For me—give me les gens d'esprit, give me a society interesting. Adieu, mes chères. It was amusing, that boarding-school experience, but to endure it long—mon dieu, I prefer even this!"
She waved her hand airily toward the policeman and the grinning detectives, and, with a shrug, moved toward the shop door, then paused for a parting message.
"My regards to the venerable spinsters. It pains me that I shall never be able to arrange for them a meeting with the Duchesse de Rochechouart and Madame la Comtesse de Pourtales. The maid of the duchess collected stationery for me at one time. It is often of use, the stationery that carries a good crest. Adieu!"
Belinda convoyed a subdued group of girls back to the school; but, by the time they reached the door, their spirits had soared. It is sad to be disillusioned, but after all it is something to have been intimately associated with a famous criminal, and to have been an eye-witness of her capture.
Only Laura May Lee mourned and refused to be comforted.
"I will never again open my soul to anyone," she vowed hysterically.