“Go to Vickers and tell him to say to Mr. Crossley that I will be with him in a few minutes,” replied Nance.
The girl left the room, walking with her usual absolutely noiseless tread.
“Mr. Crossley,” murmured Nance.
All her depression left her on the moment. Her thoughts were completely turned into a new channel. Since her father’s death she had lived in a dream of excitement, of adventure, of golden bliss. It was true lurid lights were coming into this dream of hers; but the subject of all her young life hitherto had been banished from view. Now she remembered it with a pang and a thrill—a pang of deep pain and self-reproach, a thrill of excitement. She thought of her father when he lay dying. She remembered the mission which had been given to her. Her promise to her dying father was abundantly recalled by the mere mention of Crossley’s name.
She had taken off her dress, but she soon replaced it. She brushed out her beautiful hair, gave one glance at herself in the long mirror and ran downstairs.
Nance knew Crossley, the detective—she had often seen him before. During the six years she had lived with her father at the Grange, he had come to see them as a rule three or four times a year. At each interview she had been present. It was perfectly true that she and her father had indeed stood side by side in their intense eagerness to track the man who had sent Anthony to an early grave. She was with her father now, heart and soul. Her beautiful eyes shone as she entered the library.
“Mr. Crossley, I am glad to see you,” she said.
Crossley, a stout middle-aged man, with grizzly hair and bushy whiskers, came out of the recess of one of the windows. He made a low bow to the mistress of Rowton Heights.
“I thought it best to call, madam,” he said. “Since the letter which you wrote to me announcing Dr. Follett’s death, I have been actively pursuing inquiries, and with, I believe, a certain measure of success. In short, I am now in possession of facts which can really lead to the ultimate discovery of——”
“Hubert Lefroy?” interrupted Nance.