"You look sorry!" laughed Boyne. "Really, it is most distressing to think that we shall very soon draw ten thousand pounds!" he added mockingly, whereat the two women laughed gaily, for the coup so elaborately prepared had at last been brought off!
CHAPTER XIX
WHAT HAPPENED TO GERALD
The days passed, and Marigold, hearing nothing further from Gerald, called again at Mincing Lane, and there learned that they had not heard again from young Durrant.
A clerk had been sent over to Ealing to inquire about him, but had returned with the information that, instead of being ill, he had not been seen by his sister.
"The firm at once suspected something wrong with the books," said the female clerk of whom she made the inquiry, "but Mr. Durrant was such an honest, straightforward young man that we all ridiculed the idea."
"Have the books been examined?" asked Marigold breathlessly.
"Oh, yes; and nothing has been found wrong."
The girl drew a sigh of relief.
She then showed the clerk the telegram she had received from Birmingham, and she, in turn, promised to show it to the principal when he came in.