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Carswell, who had left the gentlemen to themselves after opening the plate-chest, followed the new-comer into the room and looked appealingly at the senior partner. "This is Miss Fosdyke, sir," she said, as if accounting for the unceremonious entrance. "Mr. Horbury's " But Miss Fosdyke, having looked round her, entered the arena of discussion as abruptly as she had entered the room. "You're Mr.
One night after dinner your lordship was here an hour or so." Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room an old-fashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the rear of the house. "Mrs. Carswell," he said, as they all went in, "has Mr. Horbury a safe in this room, or in any other room? You know what I mean." But the housekeeper shook her head.
Carswell, and a detailed account of her doings that morning, and begged them to make inquiry at the three great stations in their town.
Miss Betty Fosdyke, attired in her smartest, was just entering the portals of Chestermarke's Bank. Mrs. Carswell herself opened the door of the bank-house in response to Miss Fosdyke's ring. She started a little at sight of the visitor, and her eyes glanced involuntarily and, as it seemed to Betty, with something of uneasiness, at the side-door which led into the Chestermarkes' private parlour.
"I have the honour of addressing " he began. "You have the honour if you like to put it so of addressing Miss Betty Fosdyke, who is Mr. John Horbury's niece," replied the young lady impatiently. "Mrs. Carswell has told you that already. Besides you saw me, more than once, when I was a little girl. And that's not so very long ago. Now, Mr. Chestermarke, where is my uncle?"
Polke held up a finger to the one who had answered Joseph Chestermarke's summons to the parlour that morning. "Here!" he said, "a word with you. Now, exactly when did Mrs. Carswell go out? You needn't be afraid of speaking, my girl it'll go no further, and you know who I am." "Not so very long after that young lady was here, Mr. Polke," answered the girl, readily enough.
"Odd!" remarked Gabriel, when the story had come to an end. "Most strange! Very well thank you, Mrs. Carswell. Neale," he added, when the housekeeper had gone away, "Mr. Horbury always carried the more important keys on him, didn't he?" "Always," responded Neale. "Very good! Let things go on," said Gabriel. "But don't come bothering me or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke unless you're obliged to.
And in the elder woman's eyes there was still the same expression, and it was with obvious uncertainty, if not with positive suspicion, that she waited. "You have not heard anything of Mr. Horbury?" asked Betty, who was not slow to notice the housekeeper's demeanour. "Nothing!" replied Mrs. Carswell, with a shake of the head. "Nothing at all! No one has told me anything."
"But what about Saturday?" asked Neale. "Shirley says you said Mr. Horbury went off on Saturday. Didn't he leave any word didn't he say where he was going?" "Mr. Horbury went out on Saturday evening," answered Mrs. Carswell. "He didn't say a word about where he was going. He went out just before dusk, as if for a walk. I'd no idea that he wasn't at home until Sunday morning.
A sudden impression crossed his mind never, he thought, were there two men from whom it was so difficult to get a word as these Chestermarkes who had such a queer habit of staring in silence at one! "The the housekeeper appears to have run away," he said haltingly. "That's somewhat queer, isn't it?" "We understand Mrs. Carswell has left the house and the town," replied Gabriel.
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