"If there has been a
robbery, the authorities shall be notified. I will have one of the
girls inquire. You say Walter is down there, Belle?"
"Yes, and a man is running off down the road. I'll go see what it
all means."
"I wish you would, please."
The eager gaze of Inez followed Belle as she left the room. The
little excitement had proved rather good, than otherwise, for the
patient, for there was a glow and flush to her dusky cheeks and her
eyes had lost that dull, hopeless look of combined hunger and fear.
Quiet now reigned in the little chamber where the lace seller had
been given such a haven of rest.
"What's it all about, Wally?" asked Belle, as she encountered the
chum of Cora's brother, who was coming up the side steps bearing a
black valise, from which streamed lengths of lace.
"Some enterprising beggar tried to make off with this valise," he
said. "I had come down from Jack's room, and was sitting in the
library, when I saw him sneak up on the porch, and try to get away
with it. He dropped it like a hot potato when I sang out to him.
But whose is it? Doesn't look like the one Cora uses when she goes
off for a week-end, that is, unless you girls have taken to wearing
more lace on your dresses than you used to."
"It belongs to the lace seller--Inez--you know, the one we spoke of,"
said Belle. "She's here--in a sort of collapse from hunger.
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