"Yes, I am especially glad to see you, because I have something to tell you. Something I can't tell any one else."
"Bless me! this is interesting. Just wait till I find my checks, and we'll walk up town together."
Belle, however, was not destined to relate her story just then, for no sooner had they started out, she in front with Mr. Whittredge, and Rosalind and the boys following, than Mr. Molesworth joined them and began talking about the paper mills. There was nothing for her but to fall back with the others, and this was not without its compensation, for now she could have a share in telling Rosalind about the detective.
"It's all nonsense. I don't believe he was a detective at all, but it was fun taking his picture," said Jack.
"I'll have it to show you to-morrow," added Maurice.
"Why don't you ask Cousin Betty who he is?" suggested Rosalind.
Belle's deep sense of the mystery of things had kept her from thinking of this simple method of solving the problem.
"Of course we might," she acknowledged.
"I want to stop at Morgan's a moment," Allan looked back to say.
At the magician's corner Mr. Molesworth left them; but as it was only a step to the shop, the secret still remained untold.