"Certain."
"How long has she owned it?"
"Oh, years. It's one of those complicated trusteeships."
Hope sprang up in Hal's soul. "Perhaps she doesn't know about it."
"Isn't she morally bound to know? We've assumed moral responsibility in the other trusteeships. Of course, if you want to make a difference—" Wayne, again wholly the journalist, jealous for the standards of his craft, awaited his chief's decision.
"No. Have you sent a man to see her?"
"Yes. She's away."
"Away? Impossible!"
"That's what they said at the house. The reporter got the notion that there was something queer about her going. Scared out, perhaps."
Hal thought of the proud, frank eyes, and dismissed that hypothesis. Whatever Esmé's responsibility, he did not believe that she would shirk the onus of it.