Nixon appeared in the middle of it, and, congratulating myself that Mr.Steele had been able to slip away to the study while I was talking to the girls, I went over the whole story again for his benefit, after which I stopped abruptly and asked again where Mrs.Packard was.
Nixon, with a face as black as the passage from which I had just escaped, muttered some words about queer doings for respectable people, but said nothing about his mistress unless the few words he added to his final lament about the cabinet contained some allusion to her fondness for the articles it held.

We could all see that they had suffered greatly from their fall.

Annoyed at his manner, which was that of a man personally aggrieved, I turned to Ellen.

"You have just been up-stairs," I said.

"Is Mrs.Packard still in the nursery ?" "She was, but not more than five minutes ago she slipped down-stairs and went out.