Again the same obstinate answer. “I know nothing, and now, Mr. Sellars, I think it is time to end this interview.”
The young man was chagrined at the negative result of his visit. The only thing he was certain of was that Mrs. Morrice had certain secrets in her past life which this woman was resolved to guard jealously. Also she had told a deliberate lie about Archie Brookes in saying that her acquaintance with him had dated from his arrival from Australia.
“I will trouble you no more on that subject, Miss Buckley. Are you disposed to be more frank with me on the subject of Archie Brookes?”
She shrugged her shoulders impatiently. “My good man, will you have the kindness to go. I know hardly anything of him except that he is Sir George’s nephew and came over here a few years ago from Australia.”
Sellars looked her straight in the face. “And that, pardon me for my rudeness, is not a fact. When Sir George adopted him, he took him from your home, and at that time he was occupying a commercial post in the City.”
And this time the shaft went home. The woman dropped her eyes, and a tell-tale flush spread above the rouge on her painted cheek. But she recovered herself quickly, walked to the door and flung it open. “For the second and last time, Mr. Sellars, I request you to bring this interview to a close.”
He moved after her, speaking as he went. “I am sorry our acquaintance ends so abruptly. One last word—if a certain person would give you a handsome sum to disclose what you do know about these two people, would you be induced to speak?”
And for the last time came the defiant answer: “I should be taking your money under false pretences. I have no information to sell.”
CHAPTER XX
RUPERT MORRICE SENDS FOR LANE
Lane was as chagrined as Sellars himself when he learned the result of that interview with Alma Buckley, for he had rather pinned his hopes on it. The great majority of people who engaged in wrong-doing were corruptible, as he had found by long experience. This middle-aged music-hall artist was a striking exception.