"
"Was there no letter left, nor any verbal information that might satisfy
us as to where they have gone?"
"Not any, sir, that I am aware of."
"Was her room examined?"
"I cannot say, sir. You know, sir, I never enter it unless when I am
rung for by Miss Gourlay; and that is very rarely."
"Do you think, Gibson, that there is any one in the house that knows
more of this matter than you do?"
Gibson shook his head, and replied, "As to that, Sir Thomas, I cannot
say."
The baronet was not now in a rage. The thing was impossible; not within
the energies of nature. He was stunned, stupefied, rendered helpless.
"I think," he proceeded, "I observed a girl named Nancy--I forget what
else, Nancy something--that Miss Gourlay seemed to like a good deal.
Send her here. But before you do so, may I beg to know why her father,
her natural guardian and protector, was kept so long in ignorance of her
extraordinary disappearance? Pray, Mr. Gibson, satisfy me on that head?"
"I think, sir," replied Gibson, most un-gallantly shifting the danger
of the explanation from his own shoulders to the pretty ones of Nancy
Forbes--"I think, sir, Nancy Forbes, the girl you speak of, may know
more about the last matter than I do.
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