“Did you ever hear any hint that she didn’t run away after all?” asked Miss Eden.
The girl looked up in real surprise.
“No, mademoiselle,” she answered with the accent of sincerity.
“Do you think it possible that she never went away at all, but that she was kept shut up at the château?”
The girl smiled incredulously.
“Oh, no; even if she was not very clever she would not have let herself be treated so. And besides, it must have been known.”
Miss Eden looked at Bayre.
“Was it jealousy of Miss Ford’s interference, then, that drove her away?” he asked.
“It was the miserable life they all led together,” replied the girl, promptly. “For Monsieur Bayre and his cousin quarrelled—they had always done so even before his marriage, and it was worse afterwards. He liked her, he respected her, but she was avaricious and mean, and so there was always a conflict between him and her as to the things he did. It was a wretched life for young Madame. She was too timid, too gentle to quarrel herself, but she had to listen to it all and to suffer for it.”
“And after she left, did you ever hear anything of her again?”