Forthwith he went noiselessly up the thickly carpeted stairway,
and knocked at her bedroom door. There was no answer. "Mother," he
said, "mother. I want to speak to you." But there was no reply. All
was silent.

He opened the door and went in. The room was empty, and the bed was
unruffled. A strange feeling possessed him; he did not know what it
was. It seemed as though something terrible had happened, but he could
see nothing. Almost mechanically he opened some of the cupboards in
the room, and saw his mother's dresses hanging--the dresses which he
had bought for her with a great love in his heart. "I wonder where she
is," he said. "I think I will go up to the top floor, and rouse the
servants." Suiting the action to the thought, he went up the next
flight of stairs. He stood for a moment and listened. He thought he
heard the servants breathing heavily. Evidently they were fast asleep,
and would know nothing about his mother. "I should only start them
talking if I asked them where she is," he thought to himself.
"Perhaps, after all, she is in one of the other rooms!"

Feeling almost like a thief, he visited every part of the house, but no
one was there, and everything was as silent as death. "I can't go to
bed and not know where she is," he reflected. "I wonder what she meant
when she talked to me so strangely--what she had in her mind! I must
know, I must know!" He opened the door, and went out into the night.
The sky was moonless, but for a wonder it was resplendent with stars.
All the factory fires were low, and the air was no longer smoke-sodden.
The wind came from the sea, and he breathed deeply. It seemed as
though a great healing power passed over his heart. He went into the
little garden upon which he had bestowed such care, and stood still,
listening. Not a sound broke the silence. Not a footstep was to be
heard. A thought struck him, and he hurried back to the house again.
The bonnet and boots which his mother usually wore when she went out
were missing, and, as he noticed it, a great fear entered his heart.
He looked at his watch; it was nearly midnight. "I wonder--I wonder!"
he said to himself. A minute later he had closed the door, and was
walking in the direction of Howden Clough.

It was six o'clock in the morning when he returned; but the month being
December, darkness still reigned supreme. Black clouds now covered the
sky, and a wailing wind passed round the house. He t