"
"That's false!" retorted Wilfer. "He does know where the girl is; he
took her from her home, and she hasn't been seen since."
Lord Barminster glanced at him coldly.
"My good man," he said, "you heard what my son said just. You had better
make inquiries of the police. Mr. Leroy has not seen your niece."
"That is not quite true," put in Adrien gently, "I have seen her."
Lady Constance raised her pale face, and looked at him with startled but
trusting eyes.
"P'raps you'll say you didn't take her to your rooms next," said Wilfer.
"I don't deny it," replied Adrien calmly. "I found her on a doorstep,
starving with hunger, fleeing from a drunken uncle, as she said. There
was nowhere else to take her, being late at night; so I took her to my
chambers and fed her, then gave her into the charge of Norgate and the
housekeeper until morning, when I learned that she had disappeared. That
is all I can tell you about her; for I have not seen her since."
"But I have," came a voice--a woman's voice--behind them, "and I have
brought her here."
The little company turned round, and Adrien started as his eyes fell
upon the three new-comers.
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