just now to turn
down the bed!"

Ellen straightened herself and fumbled miserably with the corner of her
apron. She loved all the girls, and had known many of them for years;
for though other maids might come and go, Ellen, like the brook, went on
for ever. She had been a servant in the Phipps family, and had
accompanied "her young lady" when Holly House was bought and the school
first founded. Matron, nurse, general factotum, and refuge in time of
trouble, it would have been as easy to suspect her of duplicity as Miss
Phipps herself. She was wretched now because she feared that her
"children" might be in trouble, and her "children" knew it, and loved
her for her fear.

"I did, Miss Emily. It was lying just where it usually stands, with the
glass piled up in a little heap."

"It looked, then, as if someone had arranged it so? Not as if it had
been, say, blown over by any chance?"

"It couldn't have blown over, Miss Emily! It was too heavy. And it
wasn't near the window, either."

"And the pieces, you say, were gathered together, as if someone had
placed them so? Very well, I understand! Now, Ellen, have any of the
other maids been upstairs to your knowledge since Mademoiselle left her
room at seven o'clock?"

"They say they have not, miss, for I asked them, and I've been in the
kitchen all the time. We were busy clearing away after tea, and getting
the refreshments ready for supper, and then we came and watched the
young ladies dance."

"You would have noticed if anyone had gone upstairs?"

"I think I should, being together all the time. They have no work
upstairs at this hour--"

"I know that, but I must speak to them myself later on. There is one
thing more, Ellen. Your work upstairs takes you a good time. In
passing to and fro, you didn't happen to see anyone in or near
Mademoiselle's room, I suppose? Speak up, please! Remember I rely upon
you to do all in your power to help me to get to the bottom of this
mystery!"

The last words were added in a warning voice, for Ellen's start of
dismay and drawn, miserable brows too plainly betrayed the truth of her
mistress's surmise.

"I saw--when I went up first in the middle of the dancing, I was at the
end of the passage, and I saw little Miss O'Shaughnessy coming out of a
room. I couldn't be sure, but I _thought_ it was Mademoiselle's!"

She had said it, and in an instant every eye in the room was riveted
upon Pixie, and every heart sank