“Sold?” came the questioning chorus. Marjorie and Robin stared at Mr. Cutler, then at each other.
“Yes. Let me explain. When I wrote you, Miss Dean, and made the appointment for today, I did not know this. The properties were unsold when Mr. Saxe, the owner, went to Chicago. In fact, there had been no demand for them. The surprising part of the affair is that the purchaser, on learning that Mr. Saxe was in Chicago, went there to see him. I did not furnish the address nor the information concerning these properties. The sale was conducted entirely away from me. The purchaser must have wanted them very much. Mr. Saxe was offered sixty thousand dollars for them. Naturally he accepted, at once.”
“Sixty thousand dollars!” exclaimed Robin in a wondering tone. “That is a great deal more than we could have paid.”
“I asked him what his own price would have been,” continued Mr. Cutler. “He put it at forty thousand dollars. Not far, you see, from my estimate. They were purchased by a young woman, a Miss Cairns, I believe her name was. She may have been acting as agent for a private party. I don’t know. It is rather a mystery to me—the whole transaction. I was sorry for myself as well,” he added whimsically. “It lost me a good fat commission.”
Neither Marjorie nor Robin said a word. It had taken not more than an instant’s reckoning to decide that “Miss Cairns” must be Leslie Cairns, ex-student of Hamilton College. They knew she had been staying in the town of Hamilton. They knew of no other Miss Cairns.
“She must have known we wanted them!” Robin cried out resentfully, forgetting for a second the agent’s presence.
“Did I understand you to say—” Mr. Cutler stopped. He did not in the least understand Robin’s remark.
“Then there is no use in our wasting your time, Mr. Cutler,” Marjorie said, rising. “We are disappointed, of course. We must look about us for another site. That’s all. When we find one we will come to you and have you make the inquiries about it. We shall build our dormitory somewhere in the neighborhood of the campus, some day.” She flashed the agent a dauntless little smile.
“It is too bad; too bad,” he repeated. “I was greatly interested in your plan. Do either of you, by chance, know this Miss Cairns? The name is unfamiliar to me as of this town.”
“We know of her. We do not know her personally. She is a very rich woman, in her own right, I have been told.” It was Robin who now made answer.