CHAPTER XX.
A TELEPHONE CALL Still another laggard awoke to action on this eventful Tuesday morning.
Madame Cerise had been growing more and more morose and dissatisfied day by day.

Her grievance was very tangible.

A young girl had been brought forcibly to the house and placed in her care to be treated as a prisoner.

From that time the perpetrators of the deed had left the woman to her own resources, never communicating with her in any way.
During a long life of servitude Madame Cerise had acquiesced in many things that her own conscience did not approve of, for she considered herself a mere instrument to be used at will by the people who employed and paid her.

But her enforced solitude as caretaker of the lonely house at East Orange had given her ample time to think, and her views had lately undergone a decided change.
To become the jailer of a young, pretty and innocent girl was the most severe trial her faithfulness to her employers had ever compelled her to undergo, and the woman deeply resented the doubtful position in which she had been placed.
However, the chances were that Madame Cerise might have obeyed her orders to the letter had not so long a period of waiting ensued.