‘No doubt, Warrender, no doubt. No one denies that she has good qualities, but they have been exercised greatly to the detriment of the earl. Young men will be young men, but there comes a time when such things must be put a stop to, and the time has come to stop this. You will have a legal mistress now--a lady of high birth, who will rule the house as it should be ruled, and the sooner you all forget that such a person as Miss Llewellyn existed the better!’ ‘Perhaps so, sir; but, meanwhile, what are we to do about this?’ ‘Do nothing at all! She will come back safe enough, you may depend upon that, and I will write to her to-morrow and tell her she must fix a day for leaving the house. I want to put the workmen in as soon as possible!’ ‘Very good, sir,’ said the butler, humbly, as he retired. But the next thing Mr Sterndale did was to read the account in his _Standard_ of Nell’s attempted suicide, and the coincidence naturally struck him. It did not flurry him in the least. It only made the thought flash through his mind what a fortunate thing it would be if it were true. He threw up his engagements for the day and took his way at once to the river police station to make all possible inquiries about the suicide. He did not hear much more than he had read; but the description of the woman’s figure and dress, together with the time the accident occurred, all tallied so wonderfully with the fact of Nell’s disappearance, that the solicitor considered that he had every reason to hope it might have been herself who had thus most opportunely left the course clear for the happiness of Lord Ilfracombe and his bride. He seconded the efforts of the police to discover the truth, offering a handsome reward for the recovery of the body for identification, and when a week passed without its being found, or Miss Llewellyn returning to Grosvenor Square, he considered it his duty to institute a search amongst the property she had left behind to see if he could find any clue to the mystery. He told the servants that he did so in order to try and find an address to send them after her to; but they all knew by this time that something had happened to their late mistress, and that it was unlikely they should ever see her again, and, to do them justice, there was very sincere sorrow in the servants’ hall at the idea. Mr Sterndale would not allow anybody to assist him in his search. He ransacked poor Nell’s chest of drawers and wardrobe by himself, turned over her dainty dresses and laced and embroidered stock of linen, opened all her workbags and boxes, her desk and blotting books, but found not a line to intimate she had entertained any idea of taking her own life.