As he was
leaving the mansion Poppy Jenkins rushed up to him.
"I heard you asking for my young ladies, sir, but it ain't no use, for
they're gone. Flowers of beauty they was--beautiful in manner and in
face--but they ain't to be found here no more. The Mansion didn't suit
them, and the people in the Mansion didn't suit them, and that isn't
to be wondered at. I suppose they has gone to a more congenial place,
but the address is hid from me; no, sir, I know nothing at all about
them. Yes, sir, it's quite true--I misses them most bitter!"
Here poor Poppy, covering her face with her hands, burst into tears
and disappeared down the back staircase.
Noel wrote to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and Mrs. Ellsworthy wrote back to him,
and between them they made many inquiries, and took many steps, which
they felt quite sure must lead to discovery, but notwithstanding all
their efforts they obtained no clue to the whereabouts of the
Mainwaring girls.
CHAPTER XXIII.
DARK DAYS.
"How bitterly cold it is, Primrose!"
The speaker was Jasmine; she sat huddled up to a small, but bright
fire, which burned in the sitting-room grate.
The girls had now been several months in Eden Street, and all the
summer weather and the summer flowers had departed, and the evening in
question was a very dull and foggy one in late November.
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