“I cannot find Miss Tristram in the house, Miss Mowbray. I think she must have gone out for a walk by the lower gate; she could not have left by the drive without my seeing her, for I was sitting at the window of the workroom sewing.”
CHAPTER XXX
It is strange that she should have gone out without letting me know,” said Agnes. “I don't think that it is likely she would leave the grounds by the lower gate. She must still be somewhere in the garden. Having fed the pigeons she might have strayed up to the Knoll.”
The Knoll was the small hillock overgrown with pines from which the house took its name.
“She was in her dressing-room since she fed the pigeons,” said the maid. “I fancied that I heard her leave the room, but no one appears to have noticed whether she left the house or not.”
“You will please send a couple of the servants round the grounds and up to the Knoll,” said Agnes. “It is rather important that she should be found with as little delay as possible.”
“I beg your pardon,” cried the maid quickly. “I did not know that you wanted Miss Tristram particularly. I understood that you were making a casual inquiry for her. Not a moment shall be lost in seeking for her.”
When the door closed behind the maid, poor Agnes once again began to take exaggerated views of the simplest occurrences. The disappearance of Clare she thought of as something mysterious. Why should she go away without acquainting any one of the fact that she was leaving the house? Why should she steal out by the lower gate, which involved a walk through the damp grass of the shrubberies? The lower gate was scarcely ever used in the winter months, and but rarely in the summer except by the gardener, whose cottage was at that part of the grounds.