Turning back, he saw Mrs. Constant. He went to the carriage door, and the lady thrust out a package to him, saying:
“I am so glad to have seen you here. I am so hurried—so little time. It’s the package—Blanche, that is, Mrs. Constant, you know. By-bye, I must hurry. Please tell the driver to go on.”
Nick did so, wondering at her haste, and as the carriage drove off entered his house.
CHAPTER XII.
DEAD IN HER CARRIAGE.
Nick sat down to study the package Mrs. Constant had given him, having some knowledge of the persons the package was supposed to tell about.
He knew Albert Constant had been a man of no occupation in life, living on his income; that his family was wealthy, and about the most exclusive in the city.
That his marriage to Blanche had been violently opposed by it, not alone because she was an actress, but because she was of that rank of life which his family believed was much below his own.
He also knew that Albert Constant had quarreled with his family because of this marriage, and as a consequence had withdrawn from society.
Of Eric Masson he knew less. That he moved in the same social circle as that in which the Constants were leaders he did know, and that he was not a popular member of it.
He also knew that he was a broker in Wall Street, and, if there were not charges of sharp practice against him, there were mutterings of them, while it was whispered that at poker with his friends he won too steadily and too heavily.