y had a beauty and grace, in spite of their clumsy dress, which
ennobled the scene.

When Matt once more faced round, he smiled serenely on his friend. Wade,
who knew his temperament and his philosophy, was deceived for the
moment. "Then you don't share Miss Northwick's anxiety about her
father," he began, as if Matt had been dealing directly with that
matter, and had been giving his reasons for not being troubled about it.
"Have you heard any thing yet? But of course you haven't, or--"

Matt halted him, and looked down into his face from his greater height
with a sort of sobered cheerfulness. "How much do you know about Miss
Northwick's father?"

"Very little--nothing in fact but what she and her sister showed me in
the morning paper. I know they're in great distress about him; I just
met Miss Suzette and your sister, and they told me I should find you at
the station."

Matt began to walk on again. "I didn't know but you had heard some talk
from the outside. I came off to escape the pressure of inquiry at the
station; people had found out somehow that I had been put in charge of
the telegraphing when the young ladies left. I imagined they wouldn't
follow me if I went for a walk." He put his hand through Wade's arm, and
directed their course across the tracks toward the street away from the
station, where Elbridge had walked his horses up and down the evening he
met Northwick. "I told them to look out for me, if they got anything; I
should keep in sight somewhere. Isn't it a curious commentary on our
state of things," he went on, "that when any man in a position of trust
can't be accounted for twenty-four hours after he leaves home, the
business-like supposition is that he has run away with money that
doesn't belong to him?"

"What do you mean, Matt?"

"I mean that the popular belief in Hatboro' seems to be that Northwick
was on his way to Canada on the train that was wrecked."

"Shocking, shocking!" said Wade. "What makes you think they believe
that?"

"The conjecture and speculation began in the station the moment Miss
Northwick left it, and before it could be generally understood that I
was there to represent her. I suppose there wasn't a man among them that
wouldn't have trusted Northwick with all he had, or wouldn't have felt
that his fortune was made if Northwick had taken charge of his money. In
fact I heard some of them saying so before their deference for me shut
their mouths. Yet I haven't a doubt th