"
It seized her attention. She knew they were speaking of the burglary at
Mrs. Ellsworth's house. She heard Ruthven Smith go on to explain in his
high-pitched voice that the two woman servants had been suspected, but
that their characters had "emerged stainless" from the examination.
"Besides," he continued, "neither of them had a latchkey to give to any
outside person. The two women slept together in one room. At the time of
the robbery there was no butler----"
Annesley heard no more. Suddenly the door of her spirit seemed to close.
She was shut up within herself, listening to some voice there.
"_What became of your latchkey?_" it asked.
The blood streamed to her face and made her ears tingle, as it used to do
when she had been scolded by Mrs. Ellsworth. If any one had looked at her
then, it must have been to wonder what Sir Elmer Cartwright or Lord John
Dormer had said to make Mrs. Nelson Smith blush so furiously.
She was remembering what she had done with her latchkey. She had given it
to Knight to open the front door, and so escape from the two watchers who
had followed them in a taxi to Torrington Square.
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