But their search was still without success.
Then they ascended to the upper floors, and looked all through the handsome suites of private apartments, but still without discovering a trace of the missing bride.
And so all over the house, from basement to attic, and from central hall to garden wall, they went searching in vain for the lost one.
The dowager and the duke returned to the drawing-room and looked each other in the face.
The dowager was stupefied with bewilderment.

The duke was pale with anxiety.
The mystery was growing serious and alarming.
"What do you think of it, Lady Belgrade ?" inquired the duke.
"I cannot think at all.

I am at my wit's end," answered the lady.

"What do _you_ think ?" she inquired, after a moment's pause.
"I think--that we had better call the servants up, one at a time, and put them separately through a strict examination," answered the duke.
Lady Belgrade rang the bell.
A footman appeared in answer to it.
"Examine him first, your grace," said the lady.
The duke put the young man through a strict catechism, without satisfactory results.

John was the hall footman, whose business it was to answer the street-door bell and announce visitors.