'Then you are not troubled about her?' she said enquiringly.
'Troubled!' Annabella echoed. 'Why she has left it all.'
'Left it!'Wych Hazel sat up straight in her place, facing round.
'Nobody knows yet; but she has left it. Mamma don't know. If I can only keep it from mamma!'
'Keep it from Mrs. Powder?' Hazel repeated. 'Keep what? Where has she gone? What can you be talking of, Miss Powder?'
'She has not gone far yet, but she means never to come back. I know where she is; she is hiding. You see, Mr. Charteris is at Albany; he has some business about some bill he wants to get through the Legislature, and it will keep him there a while; and Josey took the opportunity. She ran away; and I should never have known where to, only that the person she went to came and told me. It is a woman who used to be housekeeper for mamma; a very respectable woman; and Josey went to her. Think of it! And she won't come back. Not for me. And then I thought, if anybody living could have any influence over her, it might be you. She always thought all the world of you. Is it very bold in me to ask you? But Mrs. Rollo, I was desperate!'
Poor Annabella's looks and tones did not belie her. Wych Hazel sat back again, thinking.
'Marry a man,' she said slowly, 'and you may be able to live along without an "establishment." But if you marry an establishment, the small appendage that goes along with it But she must come back, of course! at once,' Hazel exclaimed, retaking her impetuous tones. 'Won't come?she must.'
'If you can only make her?' said Annabella. 'Nobody knows anything yetand Charteris will not be home for days. But I have not told you quite the whole. There is another person concerned. I am afraid,'Annabella spoke with bated breath'she means to go to Europe.'
'Stuart Nightingale'