ut she is----" She hesitated.

"Youthfully irresponsible," suggested Miles. "Let it go at that."

Sara looked at him affectionately, reflecting that Trent's black
cynicism made a striking foil to the serene and constant charity of
Herrick's outlook.

"You always look for the best in people, Miles," she said
appreciatively.

"I have to. Don't you see, people are my whole world. I'm cut off from
everything else. If I didn't look for the best in them, I should want
to kill myself. And I'm pretty lucky," he added, smiling humorously. "I
generally find what I'm looking for."

At this moment Trent returned with the news that Molly was nowhere to be
found. It was evident she had not come to Greenacres at all.

Sara rose, feeling oddly apprehensive.

"Then I think I shall go home and see if she has arrived there yet,"
she said. She smiled down at Miles. "Even irresponsibility needs
checking--if carried too far."

CHAPTER XVI

THE FLIGHT

The first person Sara encountered on her return to Sunnyside was Jane
Crab, unmistakably bursting to impart some news.

"The doctor's going away, miss," she announced, flinging her bombshell
without preliminary.

"Going away?" Sara's surprise was entirely gratifying, and Jane
continued volubly--

"Yes, miss. A telegram came for him early in the afternoon, while he was
out on his rounds, asking him to go to a friend who is lying at death's
door, as you may say. And please, miss, Dr. Selwyn said he would be glad
to see you as soon as you came in."

"Very well, I'll go to him at once. Where is Miss Molly? Has she come
back yet?"

"Come and gone again, miss. The doctor asked her to send off a wire for
him."

"I see." Sara nodded somewhat abstractly. She was still wondering
confusedly why Molly had failed to put in any appearance at Greenacres.
"What time did she come in?"

"About a quarter of an hour ago, miss. She missed the early train back
from Oldhampton."

Sara's instant feeling of relief was tempered by a mild element of
self-reproach. She had been agitating herself about nothing--allowing
her uneasiness about Molly to become a perfect obsession, leading her
into the wildest imaginings. Here had she been disquieting herself the
entire afternoon because Molly had not turned up as arranged, and after
all, the simple, commonplace explanation of the matter was that she had
missed her train!

Smiling over the groundlessness of her fears, Sara hastened away to
Selwyn