“Ah, no hesitation, James Ellis. I want the precise facts. Is it true that he made away with himself?”
“That nobody can say, ma’am,” said James Ellis firmly. “There has been some tattle of that kind.”
“And you think that he did?”
“I try not to, ma’am,” said the bailiff, “for everybody’s sake. It would be terrible.” Mrs Mostyn was silent. “Thank you, Ellis,” she said, after a few minutes of awful silence; “it would indeed be terrible. But ought some search to be made? Is it my duty to have representations made to the police?”
“I think not now, ma’am. I did not like to give any encouragement to the rumour, for, after all, it is only a rumour.”
“But where there’s smoke there’s fire, James Ellis.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the bailiff sagely; “but people often see what they think is smoke, and it turns out to be only a vapour which dies away in the sunshine.”
“Yes, yes,” said Mrs Mostyn thoughtfully.
“I have gone into the matter a good deal, ma’am, I hope, as an honest man.”
“I am sure of that, James Ellis,” said his mistress.