“She has,” said Miss Steel.
“And she whom Miss Brown has shielded—great heavens! this is too much.”
He began walking up and down the room in a rage.
“Shielded from what?”
“I am not at liberty to tell you,” he replied. “The girl repented of what she did. I know that, but she’s an ungrateful little wretch.”
A scholarly professor of English literature, however, is no match for a well-trained detective, and with a knowing smile on her lips the inspector rose to leave.
“You may return the ring,” she said. “It will be a great relief to Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky to know it has been found. She was about to give up two acres of good apple orchard to pay for it; the land, in fact, which was to provide the money for her college expenses.”
And with that she sailed out of the room and went straight to the home of President Walker, with whom she spent the better part of an hour.
Professor Green followed close on her heels. He did not pause at Miss Walker’s pretty stucco residence, however, but hastened down the campus and rang the bell at Queen’s Cottage.
Miss Brown was in, he learned from the maid. She had only arrived from the Infirmary that afternoon.