"
I waited an uneasy hour. Such a lengthy absence from home was
unprecedented. At two o'clock I went round to Herr Stuer in the
Avenue Road--a five minutes' walk.
He entered the sitting-room into which I had been ushered, wiping
his lips.
"I am sorry to disturb you, Herr Stuer," said I, "but will you
kindly tell me when Miss Carlotta left you, this morning?"
"Miss Carlotta came not at all this morning," he replied.
"But it was her regular day?"
"At ten o'clock. She did not come. At eleven I have another
pupil. She has not before missed one lesson."
I flew back home, in an agony of hope that her laughing face
would meet me there and dispel a dread that chilled me like an
icy wind.
There was no Carlotta.
There has been no Carlotta all this awful day.
There will never be a Carlotta again.
I drove to the police station.
"What do you think has happened?" asked the Inspector.
It was only too horribly obvious. Any man but myself would have
kept her under lock and key and established a guard round the
house.
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