"`Did it never occur to you, madam, that other people have darlings whom they love?' I exclaimed, unable to control my anger. `But there, tell me, what steps have you taken to find out where she went?' "`Steps! I take steps? Absurd! My good man, you must be mad.' "`I shall be soon,' I muttered, then aloud-- "`But you have done something, madam, surely?' "`I desired Mr Saint Ray to write to you, and of course you are the proper person to take steps, as you term it,' said the lady contemptuously. "`Tell me when she left and how. Give me some information, I beg of you,' I exclaimed. "`My good man, I cannot touch the subject at all. It is too painful-- too dreadful. See Mr Saint Ray. When I think of having harboured so dreadfully shameless a creature, I feel faint--it turns me sick.' "I dared not speak--I dared not give utterance to the rage still struggling in my breast, for this was only a woman, and such a woman, that I dashed out of the room, and the door banged heavily behind me. "As I left the room I nearly fell over the footman, who had evidently been listening, and I caught a glimpse of two female heads disappearing at a doorway as I hurried down the stairs. "`Here, my man,' I said, `tell me all you know,' and I thrust my hand once more into my meagrely filled pocket. "`Oh, it's all right, sir, I don't want paying,' said the footman hastily. `It's my belief she drove poor Miss Hendrick away with her temper. She's a wunner,' he continued in a whisper, `reg'lar tiger-cat, and the young ones is reg'lar tiger-kittens--beasts,' he added, half savagely. "`Tell me when she went.' "`Well, sir, it was the night afore the night afore last as she went out, and didn't come back. I'm going, too, and so's two of the maids.' "`Did she take her box?' "`Lor', no, sir, nothing at all; and when she didn't come back, we down in the servants' 'all said as she had been driven away, and gone home.' "`But,' I said, and I felt the blood come into my face as I asked the question about my own child, `but did she go alone?' "`Oh, yes, I think so, sir.' "`And,'--I was choking as I asked the question--`what gentlemen came to see her?' "`Gentlemen--to see her?' "`Yes; your master said so in his letter.' "`Why, what a whopper!' exclaimed the man indignantly. `Nobody never came to see her once. Stop! yes, they did.' "My heart seemed to stand still at his words. "`Yes, there was an old gentleman called one afternoon--grey-headed old gentleman--a parson, of course--so there was. It was while I was out with the carriage. Hann let him in, and fetched Miss Hendrick down, and she saw him in the dining-room. I remember Hann told me all about it. To be sure; and that little cat, Miss Celia, kicked up a row because Hann wouldn't let her go into the dining-room while the gentleman was here, and she said she'd tell her mar. Miss Hendrick ain't been home, then, sir?' "`No, my man, no.'