"Then you think, perhaps, she has gone mad and murdered her sister? How awful! The police should be told at once, they really should."
"My dear Mrs. Whitley, do not be so hasty. Whatever my suspicions may be, I have not formulated them. In diplomacy one learns never to jump to conclusions; but I confess this seems to me to be a very mysterious and unpleasant affair. It makes me regret ever having come to a boarding-*house, in spite of the advice of my dearest friend, the Duchess of Middlesex. 'Don't go to any such place, Mimi,' she said. She always calls me 'Mimi.' 'You never can tell who you may meet or what may happen, and it is so very unpleasant to be mixed up with persons with whom one cannot associate.' Didn't she, Angelo?"
Mr. Dumaresq, as usual, confirmed his wife's statement.
"But do you really think there is something wrong—that a crime has been committed?" asked the little group of ladies one of the other.
"I, for one, should not be surprised," said the medical woman boldly; "but it is well not to speak till one is certain, and of course I may be mistaken."
