Don't be alarmed! I
have put the muzzle on worse family difficulties than this, in my time."
As he said the words I heard my mistress's voice calling to us to come
in.
CHAPTER XVI
We found my lady with no light in the room but the reading-lamp. The
shade was screwed down so as to overshadow her face. Instead of looking
up at us in her usual straightforward way, she sat close at the table,
and kept her eyes fixed obstinately on an open book.
"Officer," she said, "is it important to the inquiry you are conducting,
to know beforehand if any person now in this house wishes to leave it?"
"Most important, my lady."
"I have to tell you, then, that Miss Verinder proposes going to stay
with her aunt, Mrs. Ablewhite, of Frizinghall. She has arranged to leave
us the first thing to-morrow morning."
Sergeant Cuff looked at me. I made a step forward to speak to my
mistress--and, feeling my heart fail me (if I must own it), took a step
back again, and said nothing.
"May I ask your ladyship WHEN Miss Verinder informed you that she was
going to her aunt's?" inquired the Sergeant.
"About an hour since," answered my mistress.
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