"
"She did not sleep with you, then?" said Lady Earle.
"No, she did not sleep here," responded the young girl.
Lady Helena kissed Lillian's face, and quitted the room; a
deadly, horrible fear was turning her faint and cold. From the
suite of rooms Lord Earle had prepared and arranged for his
daughters a staircase ran which led into the garden. He had
thought at the time how pleasant it would be for them. As Lady
Helena entered, Suzette stood upon the stairs with a bow of pink
ribbon in her hand.
"My lady," she said, "I fastened the outer door of the staircase
last night myself. I locked it, and shot the bolts. It is
unfastened now, and I have found this lying by it. Miss Earle
wore it last evening on her dress."
"Something terrible must have happened," exclaimed Lady Helena.
"Suzette, ask Lord Earle to come to me. Do not say a word to any
one."
He stood by her side in a few minutes, looking in mute wonder at
her pale, scared face.
"Ronald," she said, "Beatrice has not slept in her room all
night. We can not find her."
He smiled at first, thinking, as she had done, that there must be
some mistake, and that his mother was fanciful and nervous; but,
when Lady Helena, in quick, hurried words, told him of the
unfastened door and the ribbon, his face grew serious.
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