“She shall not return to this house though she die of starvation on the street,” was Isabel’s thought, and at the very first opportunity that offered she stole quietly from the room and made her way to the apartment where she expected to find her father and the unhappy Iris.
CHAPTER LVI.
A CRUEL SUSPICION.
“Oh, madam, I cannot work any longer; something terrible has happened to Maggie; I have felt so uneasy all day about her, and now, see, it is almost night, and she has not yet returned. I must go and look for her; my hands tremble so that I can no longer hold my needle.”
The speaker was Jenny Mason, and the time almost evening of the day on which Iris had been sent to the bank by Madam Ward.
“I am beginning to grow the least bit uneasy myself,” exclaimed madam, while Jenny waited for her permission to quit work. “I think it probable that Mrs. Neville is detaining her; you know, Jenny, that Mrs. Neville said she should probably meet Maggie at the bank and drive her home. If this is the case I shall scold Maggie severely, for she should certainly know better than to keep me in this suspense all this time. You may go, Jenny, but I do not think there is any cause for alarm. Maggie is certainly no baby; she is fully capable of taking care of herself.”
Jenny did not wait to hear any further words from her employer. Her heart was sick with forebodings and fears for the safety of the friend she loved, and she left the shop in Forty-first Street looking like a little ghost.
After Jenny’s departure, Madam Ward grew more uneasy with every passing moment, and at last, when darkness began to settle over the city, and the girls were making ready for departure, she called Emma Henry to her, and asked the latter to go to Mrs. Neville’s residence and see if the missing girl was still there.
Emma started upon the errand gladly, for she could hardly have slept that night without being satisfied of Maggie’s safety.
She had not been gone ten minutes when madam, whose face was pressed against the windowpane, uttered an exclamation of intense relief.
Mrs. Neville’s car was drawing up before the door.