brupt fashion.

"Gone!" he exclaimed, and stared at her in dismay. "Gone where?"

"That's just it," said Miss Grover. "I wish I knew. I reckon we'd got
into the habit of trusting her too much, but it seemed the only way. She
wasn't in her room last night, but Ella Finley didn't find it out until
this morning, and she ran over scared to death, to tell us about it."

Involuntarily the rector reached for his hat.

"I've sent out word among our friends in Dalton Street," Sally
continued. An earthquake could not have disturbed her outer,
matter-of-fact calmness. But Hodder was not deceived: he knew that she
was as profoundly grieved and discouraged as himself. "And I've got old
Gratz, the cabinet-maker, on the job. If she's in Dalton Street, he'll
find her."

"But what--?" Hodder began.

Sally threw up her hands.

"You never can tell, with that kind. But it sticks in my mind she's done
something foolish."

"Foolish?"

Sally twitched, nervously.

"Somehow I don't think it's a spree--but as I say, you can't tell. She's
full of impulses. You remember how she frightened us once before, when
she went off and stayed all night with the woman she used to know in the
flat house, when she heard she was sick?"

Hodder nodded.

"You've inquired there?"

"That woman went to the hospital, you know. She may be with another one.
If she is, Gratz ought to find her... You know there was a time, Mr.
Hodder, when I didn't have much hope that we'd pull her through. But
we got hold of her through her feelings. She'd do anything for Mr.
Bentley--she'd do anything for you, and the way she stuck to that
embroidery was fine. I don't say she was cured, but whenever she'd feel
one of those fits coming on she'd let us know about it, and we'd watch
her. And I never saw one of that kind change so. Why, she must be almost
as good looking now as she ever was."

"You don't think she has done anything--desperate?" asked Hodder,
slowly.

Sally comprehended.

"Well--somehow I don't. She used to say if she ever got drunk again
she'd never come back. But she didn't have any money--she's given Mr.
Bentley every cent of it. And we didn't have any warning. She was as
cheerful as could be yesterday morning, Mrs. McQuillen says."

"It might not do any harm to notify the police," replied Hodder, rising.
"I'll go around to headquarters now."

He was glad of the excuse for action. He could not have sat still. And
as he walked rapidly across Burto