ociety'--must be running poor Nita down,
now that she's dead and can't defend herself!... If the truth were only
known about some of _them_----"

Dundee could almost have embraced the homely, life-soured spinster--she
was making his task so easy for him.

"I've met them all, of course, since Mrs. Selim was murdered," he said
deprecatingly, "and I must say they seem to be remarkably fine women and
girls----"

"Oh _are_ they?" Miss Earle snorted. "Flora Hackett--Mrs. Tracey Miles
she is now--didn't happen to tell you the nice little fuss _she_ kicked
up when she was here, did she? Oh, no! I guess not!"

"She looks," Dundee agreed, "like a girl who would have made things
lively."

"I'll say so! Miss Pendleton nearly had nervous prostration!" Miss Earle
plunged on, then fear blanched her face for a moment. "You know you've
promised you'll never tell Miss Pendleton or Miss Macon that you talked
to me!"

"You can depend on it that I will protect you," Dundee assured her.
"When did Flora Hackett kick up her little fuss?"

"Let's see.... Flora graduated in June, 1920," Miss Earle obliged
willingly. "So it must have been in 1919--yes, because she had one more
year here. Of course they let her come back!... _Money!_... She took the
lead in our annual Easter play in 1919, and just because Serena Hart
complimented her and told her she was almost as good as a
professional--"

"_Serena Hart!_" Dundee wonderingly repeated the name of one of
America's most popular and beloved stage stars.

"Yes--Serena Hart," Miss Earle repeated proudly. "She was a Forsyte
girl, too, and of course she _did_ go into the chorus herself, after she
graduated in--let's see--1917, because it was the second year after I'd
come to work here--and Miss Pendleton nearly died, because she was
afraid Forsyte's precious prestige would be lowered, but when Serena
became a star everything was grand, of course, and Forsyte was proud to
claim her.... Anyway, Serena comes to the Easter play every year she
can, if she isn't in a Broadway play herself, of course, and so she saw
Flora acting in the Easter play in 1919, and told her she was awfully
good. She was, too, but not half the actress that little Penny Crain
was, when she had the lead in the play four or five years ago."

Dundee's heart begged him to ask for more details of Penny's triumph,
but his job demanded that he keep the now too-voluble Miss Earle to the
business in hand.

"And Flora Hackett----