“Can you give me Miss Douglas’ present address?” he asked. “I would really like to return what belongs to her.”
She would not have told him for a kingdom, had she known, but she replied, with every appearance of kindness:
“How sorry I am, but really I do not know. Indeed, I was so shocked and disappointed to discover one so young and lovely so old in guilt, that it did not occur to me to ask where she was going.”
It nettled him exceedingly to have her talk thus; and could she have read his heart, she would have seen at once that there was little chance of her becoming “my lady.”
“Should you discover where she is, will you kindly inform me?” he asked.
“Oh, certainly, with great pleasure,” smiled the fascinating hypocrite.
“I still think you will find there has been some mistake, Miss Coolidge,” he added gravely. “I knew something of Miss Douglas before meeting her in this country, and the statement you have made regarding her seems utterly impossible.”
“You!” exclaimed Isabel, her heart bounding wildly. “Did you know Miss Douglas in America?”
Perhaps, after all, here was the solution of the mystery of those beautiful gems, and that card with the names of counts and lords upon it. Had he had anything to do with it?
Her brain reeled at the thought.