The Lady Sleuths MEGAPACK TM(203)

                             “One could scarcely expect a princess with Eastern blood in her veins to be a quiet and passive spectator to such a drama of cross-purposes.”

                “Scarcely. The Major, perhaps, hardly takes the Princess sufficiently into his reckoning. According to him, young Cassimi is a thorough-going Iago, and he begs me to concentrate attention entirely on him. Cassimi, he says, has stolen the photograph. Cassimi has inveigled the girl out of the house on some pretext—perhaps out of the country also, and he suggests that it might be as well to communicate with the police at Cairo, with as little delay as possible.”



                             “And it hasn’t so much as entered his mind that his Princess might have a hand in such a plot as that!”

                “Apparently not. I think I told you that Mademoiselle had taken no luggage—not so much as a hand-bag—with her. Nothing, beyond her coat and hat, has disappeared from her wardrobe. Her writing-desk, and, in fact, all her boxes and drawers, have been opened and searched, but no letters or papers of any sort have been found that throw any light upon her movements.”

                “At what hour in the day is the girl supposed to have left the house?”

                “No one can say for certain. It is conjectured that it was some time in the afternoon of the second of this month—a week ago to-day. It was one of Mrs. Druce’s big reception days, and with a stream of people going and coming, a young lady, more or less, leaving the house would scarcely be noticed.”

                “I suppose,” said Loveday, after a moment’s pause, “this Princess Dullah-Veih has something of a history. One does not often get a Turkish princess in London.”

                “Yes, she has a history. She is only remotely connected with the present reigning dynasty in Turkey, and I dare say her princess-ship has been made the most of. All the same, however, she has had an altogether exceptional career for an Oriental lady. She was left an orphan at an early age, and was consigned to the guardianship of the elder Cassimi by her relatives. The Cassimis, both father and son, seem to be very advanced and European in their ideas, and by them she was taken to Cairo for her education. About a year ago they ‘brought her out’ in London, where she made the acquaintance of Major Druce. The young man, by-the-way, appears to be rather hot-headed in his love-making, for within six weeks of his introduction to her their engagement was announced. No doubt it had Mrs. Druce’s fullest approval, for knowing her son’s extravagant habits and his numerous debts, it must have been patent to her that a rich wife was a necessity to him. The marriage, I believe, was to have taken place this season; but taking into consideration the young man’s ill-advised attentions to the little Swiss girl, and the fervour he is throwing into the search for her, I should say it was exceedingly doubtful whether—”



                             “Major Druce, sir, wishes to see you,” said a clerk at that moment, opening the door leading from the outer office.

                “Very good; show him in,” said Mr. Dyer. Then he turned to Loveday.

                “Of course I have spoken to him about you, and he is very anxious to take you to his mother’s reception this afternoon, so that you may have a look round and—”

                He broke off, having to rise and greet Major Druce, who at that moment entered the room.

                He was a tall, handsome young fellow of about seven or eight and twenty, “well turned out” from head to foot, moustache waxed, orchid in button-hole, light kid gloves, and patent leather boots. There was assuredly nothing in his appearance to substantiate his statement to Mr. Dyer that he “hadn’t slept a wink all night, that in fact another twenty-four hours of this terrible suspense would send him into his grave.”