“Have you any guess whither your master may be gone, or the gentlewomen?”
“I’ve guessed a many things since yester-even, Sir,” answered Margery quietly, “but which is right and which is wrong I can’t tell.”
“When Mistress Collenwood and Mistress Pandora went hence secretly in the night-time, knew you thereof, beforehand?”
“Surely no, Father.”
“Had you any ado with their departing?”
“The first thing I knew or guessed thereof, Father, was the next morrow, when I came into the hall and saw them not.”
Mr Bastian felt baffled on every side. That his prey had eluded him just in time to escape the trap he meant to lay for them, was manifest. What his next step was to be, was not equally clear.
“Well!” he said at last with a disappointed air, “if you know nought, ’tis plain you can tell nought. I must essay to find some that can.”
“I have told you all I know, Father,” was the calm answer. But Margery did not say that she had told all she thought, nor that if she had known more she would have revealed it.
Mr Bastian took up his hat and stick, pausing for a moment at the door to ask, “Is that black beast come back?”