LADY MEG.
"One moment!" said Jen, as they approached the veranda, whereon Dido was waiting them. "How do you know Etwald picked up the handkerchief in the room?"
"Because I overheard his apology to my mother for having put her handkerchief to such use," replied Isabella, with suspicious promptitude.
"Humph! Didn't the doctor think it strange that he should find it there?"
"I don't know, major. He made no remark."
"Rather peculiar, don't you think, seeing that he must necessarily have been ignorant of your visit on that night?"
The color of Isabella rose in her cheeks.
"He was not ignorant of that!" she said in a low voice. "To account for the fever which seized me, my mother explained all that took place to Dr. Etwald. He quite understood that I had dropped the handkerchief."
"Did he apologize for his use of it before or after the explanation?" was Jen's final question.
"After!" replied Isabella, with some hesitation; then abruptly left the major's side to exchange a few words with Dido. Jen, as was natural, looked after her with a glance full of doubt and suspicion. Notwithstanding her love for Maurice and her expressed desire to avenge his death by hunting down the assassin, she appeared to be anything but frank in the matter. In plain words, her conduct suggested to Jen's mind an idea that she knew more than she cared to talk about; and that such half-hinted knowledge implicated her mother. In which case--but here Dido interrupted Jen's meditations.