“What do you mean?” asked Rhoda, trembling.
“Let me get your rooms ready, and get rid of the maid, who is in the next room and who will be in here in a minute, and then I’ll tell you everything,” said Mrs. Hawkes.
And within five minutes, the two rooms having been got ready, and the maid dismissed in search of tea and sandwiches for Miss Pembury, the two old friends sat down in the window-seat together, and the housekeeper began her story.
CHAPTER IV.
RHODA RETURNS TO MILL-HOUSE
“Ah, Miss Pembury, there’s been a many changes since the night when you ran away from here!” she said, as she sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “But why did you go so quick and so quiet? And why didn’t you come forward when the inquest was held?”
“I—I went away because I’d displeased Sir Robert,” said Rhoda. “So that I couldn’t bear to meet him again. And as for the inquest, if you mean that on the poor butler, I never heard anything about it till long after it was over. I fell ill, you know, and they wouldn’t let me know anything.”
Mrs. Hawkes nodded.
“I know that was what they said, but we all thought that it was only an excuse, and that the truth was you didn’t want to come forward, because you knew too much.”
“Too much!” faltered Rhoda.
“Yes. By the time you were missed, and by what we heard of your arriving at the hotel where you stayed the night, we thought as how you couldn’t but have heard or seen something of the murderer of poor Langton.”