“Beg pardon, Miss, but could I speak to you a minute?”
For an instant she seemed to hesitate; and in that instant he could see that she grew deadly pale. At last, however, she made a movement to signify assent, closed the window, and disappeared.
The detective, who thought he had reason to fear that she would again attempt to escape him, pushed brusquely past Meg, and opened the side-door.
“What are you going in like that for, without so much as ‘with your leave, or by your leave’?” asked she promptly.
“You heard the young lady say she’d see me,” replied the detective, as, without further ceremony, he passed into the house.
At the foot of the stairs he met Nell.
“What do you wish to say to me?” she asked, in a very tranquil tone.
It was now so dark in the passage that they could hardly see each other’s face.
“Well, in the first place, Miss, I should like to speak to you in a better light,” replied the man.
“In here, then,” said she, leading the way, after another moment of apparent hesitation, into the little sitting-room at the back of the house.