"It means,
my darling little Penny, that _anyone in Hamilton who had any interest
in the matter believed Nita Leigh Selim was dead, and thought the
spelling of her name was wrong, not the picture itself_!... The question
is _who_ read that story and gazed on that picture with exquisite
relief?"
Two hours before he had dismissed as impossible or highly impractical
his impulse to investigate the eleven-year-old scandal on Flora Hackett,
who was now Flora Miles, as told him by Gladys Earle of the Forsyte
School. Even more difficult would it be to find out why Janet Raymond's
mother had taken her abroad for a year. Of course--he had ruefully told
himself--Nita Leigh might have been lucky--or unlucky enough to run
across documentary proof of one of the scandals of which Gladys Earle
had told her, or had dared to blackmail her victim by dark hints, as
Miss Earle had unconsciously suggested to her.
But this new development could not be ignored. A picture of Nita Leigh
as a suicide had appeared eight years ago in a Hamilton paper, and the
paper had either remained unaware of the error or had thought it not
worth the space for a correction.... _Eight years ago!..._
Eight years ago in June three weddings had occurred in Hamilton! The
Dunlap, the Miles, the Drake wedding.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344