CHAPTER 17Mrs. Maple sat and looked at her visitor. Naturally, she knew Miss Silver by sight—visiting Mrs. Merridew at the White Cottage, and an old school friend. Florrie Hunt spoke well of her, and it wasn’t everybody that got the soft side of Florrie’s tongue. But the gentleman with her—well, he was a bit of a puzzler. A gentleman he was and you couldn’t get from it, and none of those nasty uniforms. But if he hadn’t got something to do with the police, why was he here and wanting to know about Miss Holiday? For the matter of that, why was Mrs. Merridew’s friend here either? Questions they wanted answered. Nice clear voices they’d got—took the trouble to open their mouths and speak plain so that you could hear what they said. But she hadn’t properly made up her mind whether she’d let on
