It is strange that, all day, I had never thought of
looking over her clothes and seeing what was missing. I hadn't known
all she had, of course, but I had seen her all winter in her fur
coat and admired it. It was a striped fur, brown and gray, and very
unusual. But with the coat missing, and a dress and hat gone, it began
to look as if I had been making a fool of myself, and stirring up a
tempest in a teacup. Miss Hope was as puzzled as I was.
"Anyhow, if he didn't kill her," she said, "it isn't because he did
not want to. Only last week she had hysterics in my dressing-room,
and said he had threatened to poison her. It was all Mr. Bronson, the
business manager, and I could do to quiet her."
She looked at her watch, and exclaimed that she was late, and would
have to hurry. I saw her down to her boat. The river had been falling
rapidly for the last hour or two, and I heard the boat scrape as it
went over the door-sill. I did not know whether to be glad that the
water was going down and I could live like a Christian again, or to be
sorry, for fear of what we might find in the mud that was always left.
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