slowly, and in English, she said, "I believe in
my 'eart that she 'as gone off to Aix. The play 'ere was not big enough
for 'er. And remember that you 'ave good friends still left in Lacville.
I do not only speak of me and of my 'usband, but also of another one."

She laughed, if good-naturedly, then a little maliciously.

But Sylvia gave no answering smile. She told herself that Madame Wachner,
though kindly, was certainly rather vulgar, not to say coarse. And her
words about Madame Wolsky were really unkind. Anna was not such a gambler
as was Fritz Wachner.

They were now at the gate of the boarding house.

"We will, at any rate, go in and find out when Anna left, and if she said
where she was going," said Sylvia.

"If you do not mind," observed Madame Wachner, "I will remain out here,
in the car. They have already seen me this morning at the Pension
Malfait. They must be quite tired of seeing me."

Sylvia felt rather disappointed. She would have liked the support of
Madame Wachner's cheerful presence when making her inquiries, for she was
aware that the proprietors of Anna's pension--M. and Madame Malfait--had
been very much annoyed that she, Sylvia, had not joined her friend there.

Madame Malfait was sitting in her usual place--that is, in a little glass
cage in the hall--and when she saw Mrs. Bailey coming towards her, a look
of impatience, almost of dislike, crossed her thin, shrewd face.

"Bon jour, Madame!" she said curtly. "I suppose you also have come to ask
me about Madame Wolsky? But I think you must have heard all there is to
hear from the lady whom I see out there in the car. I can tell you
nothing more than I have already told her. Madame Wolsky has treated us
with great want of consideration. She did not come home last evening.
Poor Malfait waited up all night, wondering what could be the matter. And
then, this morning, we found a letter in her room saying she had gone
away!"

"A letter in her room?" exclaimed Sylvia. "Madame Wachner did not tell me
that my friend had left a letter--"

But Madame Malfait went on angrily:

"Madame Wolsky need not have troubled to write! A word of explanation
would have been better, and would have prevented my husband sitting up
till five o'clock this morning. We quite feared something must have
happened to her. But we have a great dislike to any affair with the
police, and so we thought we would wait before telling them of her
disappearance, and it is indeed