"Oh, yes."
"And he left without giving you any warning?"
"Yes. He served luncheon the day after father went away, and the maids say he went away immediately after. He was not there that evening to serve dinner, but—he came back late that night, and got into the house, using his key to the servants entrance. He slept there, the maids said, but he was gone before the servants were up and we have not seen him since."
I made a mental note of the butler.
"We'll go back to Carter again," I said. "Your father has not been ill, has he? I mean recently."
She considered.
"I can not think of anything except that he had a tooth pulled." She was quick to resent my smile. "Oh, I know I'm not helping you," she exclaimed, "but I have thought over everything until I can not think any more. I always end where I begin."
"You have not noticed any mental symptoms—any lack of memory?"
Her eyes filled.
"He forgot my birthday, two weeks ago," she said. "It was the first one he had ever forgotten, in nineteen of them."