t return the look.
"If that is all you can show me, I think I will proceed to my
appointment," said he. "The matter does seem to be more serious than I
thought, and if you judge it necessary to take any active measures, why,
let no consideration of my great and inherent dislike to notoriety of
any kind, interfere with what you consider your duty. As for the house,
it is at your command, under Mrs. Daniels' direction. Good morning." And
returning our bows with one singularly impressive for all its elegant
carelessness, he at once withdrew.
Mrs. Daniels took one long deep breath and came from the bureau.
Instantly Mr. Gryce stooped and pulled out the drawer she had so visibly
protected. A white towel met our eyes, spread neatly out at its full
length. Lifting it, we looked beneath. A carefully folded dress of dark
blue silk, to all appearance elegantly made, confronted our rather
eager eyes. Beside it, a collar of exquisite lace--I know enough of such
matters to be a judge--pricked through by a gold breast-pin of a strange
and unique pattern. A withered bunch of what appeared to have been a
bouquet of red roses, surmounted the whole, giving to the otherwise
commonplace collection the appearance of a relic from the tomb.
We both drew back in some amazement, involuntarily glancing up at Mrs.
Daniels.
"I have no explanation to give," said that woman, with a calmness
strangely in contrast to the agitation she had displayed while Mr. Blake
had remained in the room. "That those things rich as they are, really
belonged to the girl, I have no doubt. She brought them when she came,
and they only confirm what I have before intimated: that she was no
ordinary sewing girl, but a woman who had seen better days."
With a low "humph!" and another glance at the dark blue dress and
delicate collar, Mr. Gryce carefully replaced the cloth he had taken
from them, and softly closed the drawer without either of us having laid
a finger upon a single article. Five minutes later he disappeared from
the room.
I did not see him again till occasion took me below, when I beheld him
softly issue from Mr. Blake's private apartment. Meeting me, he smiled,
and I saw that whether he was conscious of betraying it or not, he had
come upon some clue or at the least fashioned for himself some theory
with which he was more or less satisfied.
"An elegant apartment, that," whispered he, nodding sideways toward the
room he had just left, "pity you h
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