As soon as Mr. Tressalia made his appearance she sought him and asked him a few questions that she had intended asking Editha the night before, but had not had an opportunity, and the effect which his answers produced upon her startled him not a little.
She lost her self-possession entirely, trembled, and grew frightfully pale, while the tears fairly rained over her fine face as, grasping both his hands in hers, she exclaimed:
“My friend Paul, you have proved yourself a good genie more than once; and now shall I tell you something you will like to know?”
Of course he was very curious about the matter; but the nature of the secret cannot be disclosed just here, although he deemed it of so much importance that he felt justified in seeking Mr. Dalton at once, to demand an explanation regarding some things that had occurred during his early life.
He came back to madam with the startling intelligence that Mr. Dalton and his party had left on the early train.
“Gone?” almost shrieked Madam Sylvester. “He knew it—he knew what I have told you. I remember how he appeared last night when he met me, and now he has fled to escape me.”
Both Paul and Mr. Gustave Sylvester were on their mettle now, and proceeded to ascertain whither Mr. Dalton had gone.
The waiter who had served them, and the porter who had assisted in removing their trunks, were interviewed and feed, but neither had noticed the labels on the departing visitors’ baggage, and so their destination was a matter of doubt.
But that afternoon madam’s party also bade adieu to Saratoga, their object being to ferret out the hiding-place of Sumner Dalton, and compel him to do an act of justice long delayed.