"What does this mean?" I gasped.
But before she could reply there was a knock at the door.
"A telegram for Miss Granard," said the voice of the hall-porter.
"Quick, Mary," said Lady Molly, eagerly. "I told the chief and also Meisures to wire here and to you."
The telegram turned out to have come from Ninescore, and was signed "Meisures." Lady Molly read it out aloud:
"Mary Nicholls arrived here this morning. Detained her at station. Come at once."
"Mary Nicholls! I don't understand," was all I could contrive to say.
But she only replied:
"I knew it! I knew it! Oh, Mary, what a wonderful thing is human nature, and how I thank Heaven that gave me a knowledge of it!"
She made me get dressed all in a hurry, and then we swallowed some breakfast hastily whilst a fly was being got for us. I had, perforce, to satisfy my curiosity from my own inner consciousness. Lady Molly was too absorbed to take any notice of me. Evidently the chief knew what she had done and approved of it: the telegram from Meisures pointed to that.
My lady had suddenly become a personality.
22
