A Strange Disappearance | Page 6

had
been interrupted); and the absence of any great pile of work such as one
would expect to see in a room set apart for sewing, were all I could
discover. Not much to help us, in case this was to prove an affair of
importance as I began to suspect.
With Mr. Gryce's arrival, however, things soon assumed a better shape.
He came to the basement door, was ushered in by your humble servant,
had the whole matter as far as I had investigated it, at his finger-ends in
a moment, and was up-stairs and in that room before I, who am called
the quickest man in the force as you all know, could have time to
determine just what difference his presence would make to me in a
pecuniary way in event of Mrs. Daniels' promises amounting to
anything. He did not remain there long, but when he came down I saw
that his interest was in no wise lessened.
"What kind of a looking girl was this?" he asked, hurrying up to Mrs.
Daniels who had withdrawn into a recess in the lower hall while all this
was going on. "Describe her to me, hair, eyes, complexion, etc.; you
know."
"I--I--don't know as I can," she stammered reluctantly, turning very red
in the face. "I am a poor one for noticing. I will call one of the girls,
I--" She was gone before we realized she had not finished her sentence.
"Humph!" broke from Mr. Gryce's lips as he thoughtfully took down a
vase that stood on a bracket near by and looked into it.
I did not venture a word.
When Mrs. Daniels came back she had with her a trim-looking girl of
prepossessing appearance.
"This is Fanny," said she; "she knows Emily well, being in the habit of
waiting on her at table; she will tell you what you want to hear. I have
explained to her," she went on, nodding towards Mr. Gryce with a
composure such as she had not before displayed; "that you are looking
for your niece who ran away from home some time ago to go into some

sort of service."
"Certainly, ma'am," quoth that gentleman, bowing with mock
admiration to the gas-fixture. Then carelessly shifting his glance to the
cleaning-cloth which Fanny held rather conspicuously in her hand, he
repeated the question he had already put to Mrs. Daniels.
The girl, tossing her head just a trifle, at once replied:
"O she was good-looking enough, if that is what you mean, for them as
likes a girl with cheeks as white as this cloth was afore I rubbed the
spoons with it. As for her eyes, they was blacker than her hair, which
was the Blackest I ever see. She had no flesh at all, and as for her
figure--" Fanny glanced down on her own well developed person, and
gave a shrug inexpressibly suggestive.
"Is this description true?" Mr. Gryce asked, seemingly of Mrs. Daniels,
though his gaze rested with curious intentness on the girl's head which
was covered with a little cap.
"Sufficiently so," returned Mrs. Daniels in a very low tone, however.
Then with a sudden display of energy, "Emily's figure is not what you
would call plump. I have seen her--" She broke off as if a little startled
at herself and motioned Fanny to go.
"Wait a moment," interposed Mr. Gryce in his soft way. "You said the
girl's hair and eyes were dark; were they darker than yours?"
"O, yes sir;" replied the girl simpering, as she settled the ribbons on her
cap.
"Let me see your hair."
She took off her cap with a smile.
"Ha, very pretty, very pretty. And the other girls? You have other girls I
suppose?"
"Two, sir;" returned Mrs. Daniels.

"How about their complexions? Are they lighter too than Emily's?"
"Yes, sir; about like Fanny's."
Mr. Gryce spread his hand over his breast in a way that assured me of
his satisfaction, and allowed the girl to go.
"We will now proceed to the yard," said he. But at that moment the
door of the front room opened and a gentleman stepped leisurely into
the hall, whom at first glance I recognized as the master of the house.
He was dressed for the street and had his hat in his hand. At the sight
we all stood silent, Mrs. Daniels flushing up to the roots of her gray
hair.
Mr. Blake is an elegant-looking man as you perhaps know; proud,
reserved, and a trifle sombre. As he turned to come towards us, the
light shining through the windows at our right, fell full upon his face,
revealing such a self-absorbed and melancholy expression, I
involuntarily drew back as if I had unwittingly intruded upon a great
man's privacy. Mr.