"_Suggest you look into Miss Manwaring's antecedents--also her actions between one and three o'clock last night_."
"_Ask Miss Manwaring what she was doing out of bed after one last night--search of her room might prove helpful_."
"You see," the detective apologised heavily, "after that, there wasn't anything for it but to ask you to explain."
"There is nothing to explain; the charge is preposterous."
"Yes, miss--that is, I hope so, for your sake. All the same, I had to ask you. Most of the gentlemen present when I opened the envelopes seemed to think I ought to do something at once. Personally, I'd rather have consulted Mrs. Gosnold before putting it up to you this way."
"I'm afraid you will find that would have been wiser."
"Yes, miss, perhaps. But she being absent and no way of finding out when she was liable to be back and the case left in my hands, to act on my discretion, providing no confession was made--"
"Still, I advise you to wait. If you think you must do something, why not employ your talents to find Mrs. Gosnold?"
"Well--that's so, too; and I would, only it was suggested that maybe she hadn't disappeared really, but was just keeping out of sight until this business was settled, preferring not to be around when anything unpleasant was pulled off. Like this."
"Very well," she said indifferently. "What then?"
"Spare yourself the trouble. I shan't answer."
"You might make things easier for all of us, miss, yourself included."
"I promise faithfully," Sally said, "to answer any questions you may care to ask fully, freely, truthfully--in the presence of Mrs. Gosnold. Find her first. Until you do, I refuse to say a word."
"I don't suppose you'd mind telling me how you came to get your job as secretary to Mrs. Gosnold."
True to her word, Sally kept her lips tight shut.
At this, Miss Pride felt called upon to volunteer: "Mrs. Standish ought to be able to tell you that, Mr. Mason. She brought Miss--Manwaring here."
"I'm sure," Mrs. Standish said with an elaborate air of indifference, "I know little or nothing about Miss Manwaring." But Sally's regard was ominous. She hesitated, apparently revising what she had at first intended to say. "She came to me last week--the day we left New York--with a letter of recommendation purporting to be from Mrs. English--Mrs. Cornwallis English, the social worker, who is now in Italy."