.

"Oh, no; he said he wouldn't be back for some days."

"It's several hours to Ponkwasset, I believe?" suggested Pinney.

"Yes, three or four. There _is_ one train, at half-past-twelve, I
think," said Miss Northwick, with a glance at the clock, "that takes you
there in three hours."

"The early train doesn't connect right through, then?"

"No; my father would have to wait over at Springfield. He doesn't often
take the early train; and so we thought, when we found he wasn't at the
Mills, that he had stopped over a day at Springfield to buy some horses
from a farmer there. But we've just heard that he didn't. He may have
run down to New York; he often has business there. We don't place any
reliance on that story"--she gasped the rest out--"about--that
accident."

"Of course not," said Pinney with real sympathy. "It's just one of those
flying rumors--they get the names all mixed up, those country
operators."

"They spelled the name two ways in different papers," said Adeline.
"Father had no earthly business up that way; and he always telegraphs."

"I believe the Mills are on the line of the Union and Dominion Road, are
they not?" Pinney fell into the formal style of his printed
questionings.

"Yes, they are. Father could get the Northern express at Springfield,
and drive over from Ponkwasset Junction; the express doesn't stop at the
Falls."

"I see. Well, I won't trouble you any farther, Miss Northwick. I hope
you'll find out it's all a mistake about--"

"Oh, I know it is!" said Adeline. "A gentleman--a friend of ours--has
just gone up to Wellwater to see about it."

"Oh, well, that's good," said Pinney. "Then you'll soon have good news.
I suppose you've telegraphed?"

"We couldn't get anything by telegraph. That is the reason he went."

It seemed to Pinney that she wished to tell him who went; but she did
not tell him; and after waiting for a moment in vain, he rose and said,
"Well, I must be getting back to Boston. I should have been up here to
see your father about these labor troubles night before last, if I'd
taken my wife's advice. I always miss it when I don't," he said,
smiling.

There is no reason why a man should acquire merit with other women by
seeming subject to his wife or dependent upon her; but he does. They
take it as a sort of tribute to themselves, or to the abstract woman;
their respect for that man rises; they begin to honor him; their hearts
warm to him. Pinney's devotion to his w