Page:The Rejuvenation Of Miss Semaphore.pdf/198

 Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. Whitley gasped simultaneously.

"You know some of what followed," said the medical woman, addressing Mrs. Dumaresq. "This afternoon a man called to see that wretched criminal. I, suspecting nothing, went down to see him and ask his business, for she had just taken a sleeping draught. He told me—." The medical woman paused to gain her full effect. "He told me that he was a detective from Scotland Yard, and that his business with Miss Prudence Semaphore was personal and private. Mrs. Dumaresq's words flashed on me like a thunderbolt, and quite suddenly I asked him, as if I knew all about it, if he wanted to see her in connection with the baby farming case, and he said 'Yes,'—he said Yes.—I expect he saw then he had made a mistake, for I could not get another word out of him after that, but he is to call again the day after to-morrow."

The horror of Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. Whitley could not be expressed. Mrs. Dumaresq listened with the calm air of one who has been in the secret all along.

"When I saw," said the medical woman, "that Justice was upon her track, that she