For what if Standish, by threatening the woman with betrayal to her employer, had forced her to help him in his nefarious plot?
Cissy was so excited and indignant that she was on the point of rushing to Miss Erroll and taxing her with the crime.
But sober second thought restrained her.
She might frighten the woman, and cause her to run away out of reach.
She decided to leave it all to Hawthorne and the detective.
Meanwhile, she had enough on her hands to soothe the agonized mother, who was almost frantic with grief over the mystery of her daughter's fate.
She kept wringing her hands and sobbing:
"It is two long weeks since she disappeared. Oh, it is too late! too late! for any one to save my poor child now!"
Cissy shuddered at all that the words implied, but she cried, bravely:
"Do not let us despair. Although Geraldine's whereabouts are unknown to us, she is in the keeping of God, as she has always been, and surely He will protect her. Let us hope and pray."