Page:Duer Miller--The charm school.djvu/184

 Mrs. Hayes smiled, a peculiar, dry smile not indicative of amusement. "Less than you suppose, perhaps," she said.

She seemed to Austin a puzzling, sinister old female, but he had no time to waste and pressed on: "One of our pupils has run away—Elise Benedotti. Is she here?"

They looked surprised.

"Do you mean is she in this house?"

"Exactly." "No," said Miss Mary.

"No," said Mrs. Hayes.

"You mean you can't tell me anything about her?"

"We can tell you nothing about her," they said, together. Then Mrs. Hayes rose and added, "May we offer you anything to eat before you go?"

"No, thank you," said Austin, picking up his cap from a chair. The ladies bowed. He forgot to bow. He had failed—failed as a detective, failed as a schoolmaster, and failed most ignominiously as a lover.

It was quite dark when he went out. The moon, the same moon he had seen the night before shining on the Sound, was shining now a little larger and brighter, but its light did not penetrate through the thick unfolding leaves of the elms. Nothing