riven hurriedly away in a taxicab without saying where she was
going or when she would return, and Mr. Stafford, having locked
himself in his room and denied himself to all callers, was in such an
ugly mood that he was absolutely unapproachable. Never before had Oku
seen his master in such a vicious temper. He had practically kicked
him out when he had politely inquired how many would be home for
dinner, and all that evening he heard him striding restlessly up and
down like a caged lion, raging and fuming, and once it had sounded
suspiciously to Oku as if his master might be weeping.

The little Japanese butler not only felt hurt at such treatment after
fifteen years of faithful service, but he was really concerned at the
protracted and mysterious absence of his dear mistress. In the two
years that Virginia had been at the head of the household she had
endeared herself to all her dependents. Always courteous and
considerate, never unreasonable or exacting, the servants literally
worshipped her and as the days went by without the least sign of her
coming back the general gloom deepened. In the evening, after the
day's work was done, and all hands could sit in the kitchen and take
things easy, the mistress' strange disappearance was the one topic of
conversation. The cook, a stout, apoplectic-looking Irishwoman, spoke
straight up: Her mistress, as nice a lady as she ever worked for, was
smart enough to know her own mind and if she had left her husband
there was a mighty good reason for it. The waitress, indignantly
repudiating the insinuation that she made a practice of listening to
table conversation as she passed the dishes, admitted that, having
been provided by nature with ears, she could not help overhearing
certain things. On the morning of Mrs. Stafford's departure, she had
noticed a decided coolness at the breakfast table, and later when on
going down stairs she had heard loud voices she had stopped to listen
she had distinctly heard her mistress say: "Then I shall leave you!"
This pointed clearly enough to a serious rupture, especially when
Josephine, the French maid, told how, at her mistress' orders, she had
taken from the safe all the boxes of jewelry and piled them up on the
table where they still remained. Her candid opinion was that the
master had been drinking again and that madame, disgusted at his
behavior, had eloped with a tall, handsome stranger who had been seen
loitering around the house. Oku scoffe