her off, came on
the wind that laugh. Did he dream, or did a cry mingle with it? The next
instant he started to his feet as the loud, rapid rush of carriage
wheels sounded through the deep silence of the night. What did it mean?
Had some one stealthily left the house and driven away? He rose, drew
on his coat, and without his boots, quitted his room, and descended the
stairs.

The house door stood ajar--some one had left them and driven away.

He walked to the gate. Nothing was to be seen, nothing to be heard. The
gloomy night sky, the tossing trees, the soughing wind, nothing else far
or near.

"It may have been Reuben or Joe Kent," he thought, "and yet at this time
of night and in secret! And there was a cry for help, or what certainly
sounded like one. No need to puzzle over it, however--to-morrow will
tell. A New England farm-house is about the last place on earth to look
for mysteries."

Mr. Gilbert went to bed again, and, somewhere in the small hours, to
sleep. It was rather late when he awoke, and an hour past the usual
breakfast time when, his toilet completed, he descended the stairs. The
storm had come in pouring rain, in driving wind, in sodden earth, and
frowning sky.

Aunt Hetty was alone, the table was laid for two, a delightful odor of
coffee and waffles perfumed the air. She looked up from her sewing with
a smile as he bade her good-morning.

"I was just wondering if you and Norry meant to keep your rooms all day.
Oh, you needn't make any apology; it is as easy to wait breakfast for
two as for one. The boys and me"--(they were the "boys" still to Miss
Hester Kent)--"had ours at seven o'clock. Now sit right down Mr.
Gilbert, and I'll go and rout out Norry, and you and her can have your
breakfast sociably together. You'll have a good many sociable breakfasts
alone together, I dare say, before long. Gloomy sort of day now, ain't
it?"

"Norine is not down then?" the lawyer said, startled a little, yet
hardly knowing why.

"Not yet. She ain't often lazy o' mornings, ain't Norry, neither. You
wait, though. I'll have her down in ten minutes."

He looked at her as though to say something, changed his mind suddenly,
and took seat. Miss Kent left the room. Five minutes passed. Then she
came rushing down the stairs, and back to his side, all white and
frightened.

"Mr. Gilbert, Norine's not in her room! Her bed was not slept in at all
last night!" She sat down all at once, pressing her hand hard over