"Your beau?" asked Mr. Barnes, significantly.
"No, sir. He is my husband." She tossed her head defiantly, now that her secret was divulged.
"Your husband?" said Mr. Barnes, slightly surprised. "Why, then, did you hesitate to tell me of him?"
"Because—because,"—she stammered, again much troubled,—"because, maybe, if I hadn't been talking to him, Miss Nora wouldn't have been carried off. He might have seen the thief."
"Just so," said Mr. Barnes. "Well, that will do." The girl retired only too gladly.
Mr. Barnes asked to be shown the room where the missing girl had slept, and made minute examinations of everything. Up in the room a thought occurred to him, and he once more asked for the maid.
"Can you tell me," he asked, "whether your mistress took any of her clothing with her?"
"Well, sir," she replied, "I miss the whole suit that she wore on Monday. It looks as though she must have dressed herself."
Mr. Barnes made a few notes in his memorandum-book, and then with Mr. Gedney returned to the library. Here they found Dr. Donaldson, who had arrived whilst they were upstairs. Mr. Gedney introduced the doctor, a genial, pleasant man, who shook Mr. Barnes cordially by the hand, saying:
"I am delighted, Mr. Barnes, that my old friend Gedney has been sensible enough to engage you to unravel this affair rather than call in the police. The police are bunglers anyway, and only make scandal and publicity. You have looked into the matter, eh? What do you think?"