"Three days ago she left us. Her sister came for her and took her
away. I am very sorry Miss Gordon is gone; I always had, and always
shall have, the highest opinion of Miss Gordon. Of course, she was not
the kind of person with whom I have been accustomed to associate,"
added Mrs. Amber, arranging the bracelets on her lean wrists, "being
only an attendant at a low music-hall. Still, she was thoroughly
respectable, and a thorough lady, I will say that. You wonder,
perhaps, Dr. Ellis, that I should have a lodger of that occupation.
But I am liberal in my views I was on the boards myself many years
ago. You must have heard of the beautiful Miss Tracey, who appeared in
the burlesque of 'Cupid,' at the Piccadilly Theatre--I was Miss
Tracey. I was Cupid, and I retired only when I married Mr. Amber. Ah!"
sighed the ex-actress, "he is dead now, and I keep a boarding-house.
Such is life!"
As soon as Ellis could cut short these biographical reminiscences he
did so. "I am sure that Miss Gordon is all you say, madam," he
observed politely. "But can you tell me where she now is?"
"No," replied Mrs. Amber, promptly, "I can not. Her sister came for
her. She packed her box and they left the house. She gave no address
to the driver of the cab. Mrs. Moxton simply told him to go to the
Marble Arch. I was out at the time Mrs. Moxton arrived, and she went
straight up to her sister's bedroom. I was glad that I returned before
Miss Gordon went away."
"Why do you say that?" asked Ellis. "Did you not see her daily?"
Mrs. Amber glanced round apprehensively. "I wouldn't say it to
everybody," said Mrs. Amber, giving a queer reason for her confidence,
"but as you are a stranger it does not matter. Since that horrid
murder of poor young Moxton, Miss Gordon has been very strange. She
came back from seeing her sister on the night of the crime, and from
that time until she left, remained shut up in her room."
"Shut up in her room?"
"Yes. Was it not strange? In vain I wished to see her. She refused to
let me into the room. Sarah, my servant, took up her meals and told me
that Miss Gordon was in bed the whole time. Through the door, and by
sending a message with Sarah, I implored her to have a doctor, but she
refused constantly. Yet when she went away she did not look so ill as
Mrs. Moxton. Ah!" said Mrs. Amber, expressively, "she looked ill if
you like."
"Strange!" murmured Ellis. "I suppose you knew the Moxtons
intimately?"
"Very intimately. Laura Gordon lived here before her marriage, and she
was married to Edgar Moxton from this house. It was terrible that he
should have been killed in so savage a manner, Dr. Ellis. I never
liked Mr. Moxton; but I must say I was horrified when I heard of his
doom. I wonder who killed him?"
"That is what I and many other people would like to know," said Ellis,
drily. "I suppose you guess from my name, Mrs. Amber, that I am the
doctor who examined the body?"