“And then, after creating a little excitement, she would have come forward and said she did it. Maybe she read about that escapade of young men and girls at an English house-party. They carried off valuables in an automobile, and returned the same, piece-meal, by parcel post. I don’t say my explanation of Dolly’s prank is a correct one,” said Miss Gerald, tentatively lifting long sweeping lashes to regard her companion, “but it may in some measure throw light upon it.”
“Unless—?” He paused.
“Unless what?” she asked.
“Nothing. Only I was thinking—”
The violet eyes became suddenly darker. “You mean about what you told me this morning—about Mr. Bennett and how you found him—?”
“I really didn’t wish to speak of that, only it was strange—” He stopped.
“Strange, indeed,” she observed, studying him.
“Anyhow, I can’t see how to connect that with this,” he confessed.
“There does seem a missing-link somewhere,” observed the girl. “Do you”—and her eyes were again full upon the deep serious ones—“like Mr. Bennett?”
“I neither like nor dislike him.” They had stopped for a moment in a doorway. “His manners have been rather extraordinary. I honestly can’t make him out. He looks rational enough and yet he acts most irrationally.”