A Strange Disappearance | Page 4

in which I noticed them. The first
thing that impressed me was, that whatever Mrs. Daniels called her,
this was no sewing girl's room into which I now stepped. Plain as was

the furniture in comparison with the elaborate richness of the walls and
ceiling, there were still scattered through the room, which was large
even for a thirty foot house, articles of sufficient elegance to make the
supposition that it was the abode of an ordinary seamstress open to
suspicion, if no more.
Mrs. Daniels, seeing my look of surprise, hastened to provide some
explanation. "It is the room which has always been devoted to sewing,"
said she; "and when Emily came, I thought it would be easier to put up
a bed here than to send her upstairs. She was a very nice girl and
disarranged nothing."
I glanced around on the writing-case lying open on a small table in the
centre of the room, on the vase half full of partly withered roses, on the
mantel-piece, the Shakespeare, and Macaulay's History lying on the
stand at my right, thought my own thoughts, but said nothing.
"You found the door locked this morning?" asked I, after a moment's
scrutiny of the room in which three facts had become manifest: first,
that the girl had not occupied the bed the night before; second, that
there had been some sort of struggle or surprise,--one of the curtains
being violently torn as if grasped by an agitated hand, to say nothing of
a chair lying upset on the floor with one of its legs broken; third, that
the departure, strange as it may seem, had been by the window.
"Yes," returned she; "but there is a passageway leading from my room
to hers and it was by that means we entered. There was a chair placed
against the door on this side but we easily pushed it away."
I stepped to the window and looked out. Ah, it would not be so very
difficult for a man to gain the street from that spot in a dark night, for
the roof of the newly-erected extension was almost on a level with the
window."
"Well," said she anxiously, "couldn't she have been got out that way?"
"More difficult things have been done," said I; and was about to step
out upon the roof when I bethought to inquire of Mrs. Daniels if any of

the girl's clothing was missing.
She immediately flew to the closets and thence to bureau drawers
which she turned hastily over. "No, nothing is missing but a hat and
cloak and--" She paused confusedly.
"And what?" I asked.
"Nothing," returned she, hurriedly closing the bureau drawer; "only
some little knick-knacks."
"Knick-knacks!" quoth I. "If she stopped for knick-knacks, she couldn't
have gone in any very unwilling frame of mind." And somewhat
disgusted, I was about to throw up the whole affair and leave the room.
But the indecision in Mrs. Daniels' own face deterred me.
"I don't understand it," murmured she, drawing her hand across her
eyes. "I don't understand it. But," she went on with even an increase in
her old tone of heart-felt conviction, "no matter whether we understand
it or not, the case is serious; I tell you so, and she must be found."
I resolved to know the nature of that must, used as few women in her
position would use it even under circumstances to all appearance more
aggravated than these.
Why, must?" said I. "If the girl went of her own accord as some things
seem to show, why should you, no relative as you acknowledge take
the matter so to heart as to insist she shall be followed and brought
back?"
She turned away, uneasily taking up and putting down some little
matters on the table before her. "Is it not enough that I promise to pay
for all expenses which a search will occasion, without my being forced
to declare just why I should be willing to do so? Am I bound to tell you
I love the girl? that I believe she has been taken away by foul means,
and that to her great suffering and distress? that being fond of her and
believing this, I am conscientious enough to put every means I possess
at the command of those who will recover her?"

I was not satisfied with this but on that very account felt my enthusiasm
revive.
"But Mr. Blake? Surely he is the one to take this interest if anybody."
"I have before said," returned she, paling however as she spoke, "that
Mr. Blake takes very little interest in his servants."
I cast another glance about the room. "How long have you been in this
house?" asked I.
"I was in the service of Mr. Blake's father and he