The servant, pitying his distress, asked him to come in, saying he would tell him all about the affair.
He mechanically obeyed, and his heart nearly died within him as he listened to the strange account of her sudden disappearance and protracted absence.
Nothing had been heard of her during all that time beyond what has already been related in a previous chapter, although every one reasoned, from the account which the policeman gave of her encounter with the ruffian on her return from John Loker’s house, that he must have had something to do with it, since she seemed to possess something that he was bound to have, and she as determined not to relinquish.
The detectives employed to unravel the mystery could learn nothing; they were baffled at every point. They would seem to gain a clew to her whereabouts, and then would suddenly lose it again.
Her fate remained a dark and perplexing mystery, and seemed likely to remain so indefinitely, and it had created a great deal of excitement, not only in her own city but all over the State.
At first Earle inclined to think that Mr. Dalton himself was criminally concerned in the affair, remembering as he did his excessive anger upon discovering that Editha had promised to be his wife, and also his insulting language, sneers, and sarcasm both to her and him the day before his departure for Europe.
But after he had seen and conversed with Mr. Felton, Editha’s lawyer, he changed his mind upon this point.
Mr. Felton asserted that Mr. Dalton was now traveling in search of her, and had been unwearied in his efforts to find her ever since her disappearance.
He privately informed him also that his business affairs were inextricably involved, and that for a long time he had been dependent upon Editha’s income, which she had freely and generously shared with him.
Now, however, since she was of age and controlled her property, he would be cut off from that source of supply until she was found, as Mr. Felton had no right to pay over anything to him without her sanction; so it was for his interest that he exert every effort in his power to find her.