Part 8 (2/2)

”I have left orders,” Miss Marlett answered, ”that only telegrams of instant importance are to be sent on at once. It costs twelve s.h.i.+llings, and parents and people are so tiresome, always telegraphing about nothing in particular, and costing a fortune. These telegrams _were_ very important, of course; but nothing more could have been done about them if they had arrived last night, than if they came this morning.

I have had a great deal of annoyance and expense,” the schoolmistress added, ”with telegrams that had to be paid for.”

And here most people who live at a distance from telegraph offices, and are afflicted with careless friends whose touch on the wire is easy and light, will perhaps sympathize with Miss Marlett.

”You might at least have telegraphed back to ask me to confirm the instructions, when you read the second despatch,” said Maitland.

He was beginning to take an argumentative interest in the strength of his own case. It was certainly very strong, and the excuse for the schoolmistress was weak in proportion.

”But that would have been of no use, as it happens,” Janey put in--an unexpected and welcome ally to Miss Marlett--”because you must have left Paddington long before the question could have reached you.”

This was unanswerable, as a matter of fact; and Miss Marlett could not repress a grateful glance in the direction of her wayward pupil.

”Well,” said Maitland, ”it is all very provoking, and very serious. Can you remember at all how the second message ran, Miss Marlett?”

”Indeed, I know it off by heart; it was directed exactly like that in your hand, and was dated half an hour later. It ran: 'Plans altered.

Margaret required in town. My friend and her father's, Mr. Lithgow, will call for her soon after mid-day. I noticed there were just twenty words.”

”And did you also notice the office from which the message was sent out?”

”No,” said Miss Marlett, shaking her head with an effort at recollection. ”I am afraid I did not notice.”

”That is very unfortunate,” said Maitland, walking vaguely up and down the room. ”Do you think the telegram is absolutely lost?”

”I have looked everywhere, and asked all the maids.”

”When did you see it last, for certain?”

”I laid both despatches on the desk in my room when I went out to make sure that Margaret had everything comfortable before she started.”

”And where was this Mr. Lithgow then?”

”He was sitting over the fire in my room, trying to warm himself; he seemed very cold.”

”Clearly, then, Mr. Lithgow is now in possession of the telegram, which he probably, or rather certainly, sent himself. But how he came to know anything about the girl, or what possible motive he can have had--”

muttered Maitland to himself. ”She has never been in any place, Miss Marlett, since she came to you, where she could have made the man's acquaintance?”

”It is impossible to say whom girls may meet, and how they may manage it, Mr. Maitland,” said Miss Marlett sadly; when Janey broke in:

”I am _sure_ Margaret never met him here. She was not a girl to have such a secret, and she could not have acted a part so as to have taken me in. I saw him first, out of the window. Margaret was very unhappy; she had been crying. I said, 'Here's a gentleman in furs, Margaret; he must have come for you.' Then she looked out and said, 'It is not my guardian; it is the gentleman whom I saw twice with my father.'”

”What kind of a man was he to look at?”

”He was tall, and dark, and rather good-looking, with a slight black mustache. He had a fur collar that went up to his eyes almost, and he was not a young man. He was a gentleman,” said Janey, who flattered herself that she recognized such persons as bear without reproach that grand old name--when she saw them.

”Would you know him again if you met him?”

”Anywhere,” said Janey; ”and I would know his voice.”

”He wore mourning,” said Miss Marlett, ”and he told me he had known Margaret's father. I heard him say a few words to her, in a very kind way, about him. That seemed more comfort to Margaret than anything. 'He did not suffer at all, my dear,' he said. He spoke to her in that way, as an older man might.”

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