“To whom does the furniture belong?”
“How do you know that it is furnished?” Colonel Mapleson asked, turning around and glancing sharply at his son.
Everet colored.
“I was riding by there, one day, and felt a curiosity to look inside the house——”
“But the curtains are all drawn,” interrupted his father.
“True; but I managed to get a glimpse for all that,” the young man returned, lightly, although he did not care to tell just how he had learned that the house was furnished. “By the way,” he continued, “there is some strange story about the disappearance of Mrs. Dale’s daughter, isn’t there?”
“Yes, I believe so; she went away somewhere to get a place as governess, and, as she never came back, people imagined there was some mystery about it.”
“What is your theory regarding it?” Everet asked.
“My theory? I don’t know as I have any; I was away traveling at the time. She may have gone as governess into some family, who afterward went abroad, taking her with them; or, what is more likely, she may have married and removed to some distant portion of the country.”
“One would suppose that she would have wished to dispose of the furniture in her home before going away permanently,” Everet observed.