When Sisily did not appear at dinner she began to grow uneasy, but sought to convince herself that Sisily might have gone on a _char-a-banc_ trip to Falmouth which had been advertised for that day.

The incongruity of a sad solitary girl like Sisily nursing her grief in a public vehicle packed with curious chattering trippers did not seem to have occurred to her.

But as time passed she grew seriously alarmed, and sent her husband out to make enquiries.
She had sat in the lounge listening with strained ears for the girl's footsteps until Barrant arrived.
"Has your niece any friends in Cornwall or London, or anywhere, for that matter, who would receive her ?" Barrant abruptly demanded.
"I really do not know," said Mrs.Pendleton.
She wiped the tears from her eyes with a large white handkerchief.

She was overwhelmed by the shock of her niece's disappearance, and the terrible interpretation Barrant evidently placed upon it.

But Barrant was in no mood to allow for her confused state of mind.
"You had better try and remember," he said irritably.