"What do you mean, Mrs. Parry?"
"Mean?
Humph!
I don't know if I should tell you."
Giles was now on fire to learn her meaning.
Evidently Mrs. Parry did know something, and might be able to help him.
But seeing that she was slightly offended with him, it required some tact to get the necessary information out of the old lady.
Giles knew the best way to effect his purpose was to feign indifference.
Mrs. Parry was bursting to tell her news, and that it would come out the sooner if he pretended that he did not much care to hear it.
"There is no reason why you should tell me," said he coolly. "I know all about the Princess Karacsay.
She and her daughter only came down here for a rest."
"Oh, they did, did they, Ware?
Humph!" She rubbed her nose again, and eyed him with a malignant pleasure. "Are you sure the elder Princess didn't come down to see Franklin?"
"She doesn't know him," said Giles, trying to be calm. "She took a walk in the Priory woods.
I suppose that is how the mistake——"
"I don't make mistakes," retorted Mrs. Parry, with a snort. "I know a new gardener who is employed at the Priory.
He told Jane, who told me, that Princess Karacsay, the mother, called on Franklin the other morning and entered the house.
She was with him for over an hour. He came to the door to see her off.
The gardener was attending to some shrubs near at hand.
He could not hear what they said to one another, but declares that Franklin was as pale as a sheet."
"Queer," thought Giles, remembering how the elder lady had denied all knowledge of the man.
However, he did not make this remark to Mrs. Parry.
"Well, there's nothing in that," said he aloud. "Franklin lived in Italy for many years.
He may have met the Princess there."
"True enough." Mrs. Parry was rather discomfited. "There may be nothing in it, and Franklin seems to be decent enough in his life, though a bit of a recluse.
I've nothing to say against the man."
Giles thought that this was rather fortunate for Franklin, seeing that Mrs. Parry's tongue was so dangerous.
If she ever came to know of his brother Walter, and of the relations between him and George, she would be sure to make mischief.
He thought it prudent to say nothing.
The less revealed to the good lady the better.
However, this attitude did not prevent Ware from trying to learn what Mrs. Parry had discovered with regard to the two Princesses.
She told him an interesting detail without being urged.
"Last night about nine I saw one of them out for a walk."
"Princess Olga?" questioned Giles.
Mrs. Parry nodded.
"If she is the younger of the two, she is not a bad-looking girl, Ware.
She passed my window and went on to look at the church.
Rather a strange hour to look at a church."
Giles started.
It was about that hour that he had been talking to Anne, and shortly afterwards she had heard the footsteps and had fled.
He now believed that Olga must have overheard a portion of the conversation.
It was her footsteps which they had heard retreating.
At once he remembered Olga's threat, that if he tampered with Anne in the meantime she would have her arrested.
This, then, was the reason why Olga had not come to his house again, and why she and her mother had left so suddenly for London.
He wondered if the elder Princess knew about Anne, and was assisting her daughter to get the poor girl into the hands of the law. Giles turned pale.
"What's the matter, Ware?" asked Mrs. Parry, sitting up.
"Nothing," he stammered; "but this coincidence——"
"Oh, I simply mean that as Princess Karacsay and Anne both came from Jamaica, it was strange that they should go away to London together.
Don't you think so, too?
There must be some connection."