CHAPTER XXXI

Miles came back to no. 16 Varley Street at half past four. Mrs Green took a long time to answer the door, and when she saw him she looked very much surprised and not best pleased.

“Back again, are you?”

“Yes,” said Miles. “Mrs Green, I really must see her at once.”

Mrs Green stared.

“Must?” she said, and then she gave a little angry laugh. “You and your must! Well, you can’t see her, and if you don’t know that already, well, you’ve been sold a pup same as what I was, and I’d be sorry for you if I wasn’t a deal too taken up being sorry for myself, for I come ’ere as a cook and not a general servant, and if they can’t keep their girls more nor a week, well, they won’t keep me, and so I took and told Nurse Long! And she says, ‘Oh, Mrs Green, I’ll be sure and get someone in to-morrow,’ she says. And what I felt like saying was, ‘What’s the good of getting ’em if you can’t keep ’em?’”

Miles felt a cold horror. If words meant anything, then Mrs Green’s words meant that Kay had gone away. But when—and why—and where? He said,

“Mrs Green!”

His voice sounded loud and strange. He saw her take a step back as if it frightened her, and when he saw that, he was afraid that she was going to shut the door, so he put his foot across the threshold and kept it there.

“What do you mean? You must tell me what you mean!”

And all the time he knew very well what her meaning was. She meant that Kay was gone.

Mrs Green went back another step.

“’ere, what d’you think you’re doing, coming pushing in like this? Come now, young man—you take your foot out of that and be off! If she’s let you down, she’s let you down, and talking won’t mend it.”

Miles stayed where he was.

“Do you mean she’s gone?”

“Acourse she’s gone. And what girls are a-coming to I’m sure I don’t know.”

“Why did she go?”

“Just took and went, and no rhyme nor reason.”

“But you said she was upstairs with Miss Rowland.”

“And so she was. I don’t tell lies, young man.”

“Mrs Green—when did she go?”

Mrs Green relaxed a little.

“Well, she was up with the old lady like I told you, and by-and-by Nurse Long come down the stairs. I ’eard her go along the passage to Kay’s room, and I thought, ‘What’s up?’ And she couldn’t ’ave done no more than look inside the door, for she come straight back to the kitchen and she said angry-like, ‘I see she’s got her box all ready packed. I s’pose you know she’s going?’ Well, I didn’t know nothing of the sort and I up and says so, and she shrugs her shoulders the way she’s got, and she says, ‘Cab’ll be here in five minutes’, and she goes back into the room and she comes along with Kay’s ’at and costume over ’er arm. Well, I was clean bowled over as you might say, but I wasn’t going to let ’er go like that. ‘Here, Nurse,’ I says, ‘what’s all this? The girl’s just had ’er dinner, and not a word said about leaving.’ And she shrugs ’er shoulders again and ‘Take a look into ’er room,’ she says. ‘There’s ’er box packed and locked, and ’er coat and ’at laid ready, so she’d got it all planned. She’s upset Miss Rowland something dreadful,’ she says—‘waiting till my back was turned and telling the pore old lady as she was going to leave without notice! It’s a shame!’ she says, and she goes on up with Kay’s things. And then the taxi come, and the man fetched out ’er box and off she went.”

Miles tried to collect his thoughts. What could have happened to make Kay go off like that? She must have known that he would come back. What could possibly have happened to make her go off without waiting for him, and why had Nurse Long come down for her things? Why hadn’t she come down for them herself? Flossie Palmer’s story came back to him. Had Kay seen something that she wasn’t meant to see, and had they just turned her out of the house then and there so that she shouldn’t have any chance of talking to Mrs Green? That was what it looked like to him. It looked like that, but the cold, horrible thought went through his mind—if Flossie’s story was true—if Kay had seen what Flossie had seen—would they dare to let her go? He thought Mrs Green was honest. He said,

“Didn’t you see her to say good-bye? Didn’t she tell you why she was going?”

“Tell me?” said Mrs Green. “How could she tell me when I never seen ’er?”

“You didn’t see her before she went?”

“Aren’t I telling you I didn’t?”

“And you didn’t see her go?”

Mrs Green tossed her head.

“Oh, she went all right—you needn’t fret about that! The man came and took ’er box, and I went out after ’im and she was just a-getting into the taxi.”

Miles turned round where he stood and looked up the area steps. If Kay had been coming down the steps of the house Mrs Green would have seen her all right, but if the driver had been going up with Kay’s box Mrs Green couldn’t have seen very much, and she couldn’t possibly have seen her getting into the taxi, because the area wall came in the way.

“Look here,” he said, “I wonder if you’d mind coming here a minute and telling me just where she was when you saw her, and just how much of her you saw?”

Mrs Green came out to the doorway and looked up the steps.

“I don’t know what you’re getting at,” she said. “But I saw ’er go all right. Coming down the steps she was, and I’d have called out to ’er, only the man was between us with the box.”

“Did you see her face?”

Mrs Green stared at him.

“See ’er face? No, I didn’t—and good reason too, for from what I could see she’d ’er angkercher up to it crying. And if you ask me, I should say there’d been a row upstairs and no mistake about it. I don’t know what she said and I don’t know what she done, but it’s my belief they just sent for the taxi and bundled ’er out of the house, or why did Nurse come down for ’er coat and ’at ’stead of letting the girl come down ’erself—though that don’t account for ’er box being packed ready. But there—girls is past me, and I’ve no patience with their goings on.”

Miles went back to his hotel profoundly disturbed and dissatisfied. Where had Kay gone, and where was she now? She had his address. She was bound to ring up. Perhaps there was a message waiting for him. Perhaps Kay herself would be waiting for him.…

There was no message, and there was no Kay. Hour followed hour, and still no message came.