"Oh, what a shame!" said Eleanor, indignantly. "And he wouldn't even see
you to explain?"

"Absolutely not! I tried to get them to let me in, and I sent him an
urgent message, telling him it was of the utmost importance for us to
have a talk, but I couldn't budge him."

Eleanor was flushed with resentment.

"Well, that settles it!" she said, indignantly. "If people don't want to
be helped, one can't help them. He and Zara will just have to look out
for themselves, I guess. Bessie, don't you think Zara must have gone
with those people in the car willingly?"

"Yes, I do," said Bessie. "But--"

"Then I think she and her father are an ungrateful pair, and they
deserve anything that happens to them! I'm certainly not going to worry
myself about them any more, and I should think you would drop the whole
thing, Charlie Jamieson, and attend to your own affairs!"

"Hold on! You're going a bit too fast, Eleanor," he said, laughing
lightly. "Let's see what Bessie thinks about it."

Bessie, who had flushed too, but not with anger, when Eleanor thus gave
her resentment full play, was glad of the chance to speak.

"I do think Zara went off willingly and of her own accord," she said.
"I'm sure of that, because she couldn't have been taken away without my