Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/95

Rh him; instead of that, he walked deliberately away to the other end of the room, where he lifted the lid of an inkstand he saw there, muttered some unintelligible words into it, and speedily shut it again. Immediately the uncanny fancy seized me that if I should leap to that inkstand, open it and peer in, I should surprise and capture the bit of confidence he had intrusted to it. But I restrained my foolish impulse, and contented myself with noting the subdued look of respect with which the gaunt subordinate watched the approach of his superior.

"Well?" inquired the latter as he reached him: "what now?"

The man shrugged his shoulders, and drew his principal through the open door. Once in the hall their voices sank to a whisper, and as their backs only were visible, I turned to look at my companion. She was pale but composed.

"Has he come from Eleanore?"

"I do not know; I fear so. Miss Leavenworth," I proceeded, "can it be possible that your cousin has anything in her possession she desires to conceal?"

"Then you think she is trying to conceal something?"

"I do not say so. But there was considerable talk about a paper"

"They will never find any paper or anything else suspicious in Eleanore’s possession," Mary interrupted. "In the first place, there was no paper of importance enough"—I saw Mr. Gryce’s form suddenly stiffen—"for any one to attempt its abstraction and concealment."

"Can you be sure of that? May not your cousin be acquainted with something"