t come
down to dinner she thought as perhaps she'd come over here. I thought it
weren't likely on account of the fog, but we couldn't think of anywhere
else for Mrs. Rose to be."

"Your master is at home?"

"Yes, sir, got in about seven. He was shut up in his room--the
lib'ry--till nearly dinner-time, and then he waited and waited for the
mistress to come down--and when she didn't come he got fidgety and sent
Kate upstairs."

"And Kate found no one?"

"No, sir. Only the dog--Jock--lying curled up in the very middle of the
bed--a thing he's never been known to do before, sir."

"Mrs. Rose has not been here," said Herrick. "But just wait a moment. I
will ask my wife if she expected Mrs. Rose."

He went out of the room, and found Eva coming down the short flight of
stairs from the upper floor.

"What's the matter, Jim? Who is the man in there?"

"It is the man-servant from Greenriver asking if Mrs. Rose has been
here. You did not expect her, did you, Eva?"

"Oh, no." She spoke calmly. "We were to meet to-morrow morning, but we
had no appointment for to-night."

"I see. Odd where she can have got to." Herrick frowned thoughtfully.
"You can't give me any clue to her movements, Eva? You don't remember
hearing her say anything about to-night?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," said Eva, with apparent sincerity, and
Herrick turned away without asking any other question.

Re-entering the room he quietly told the waiting Andrews that nothing
had been seen of Mrs. Rose, nor had she been expected on that particular
evening; and the young man thanked him dejectedly and moved to the door.

"It's a wretched night," said Herrick. "Won't you have a glass of
something before you go?"

Andrews thanked him, but declined; and seeing he was anxious to be gone,
Herrick did not press him, but let him depart without more ado.

He turned again into the sitting-room, meditating on this extraordinary
disappearance; and a minute later his wife joined him, eager to hear the
reason of Andrews' quest.

She came into the room wearing a satin kimono she had bought that day,
her curly golden hair bound with a broad pink ribbon, her small, narrow
foot thrust into satin slippers of the same hue.

At first sight it might have been a schoolgirl who stood there in the
doorway. A second glance would have shown, to an acute observer, faint
lines on brow and cheek, an indefinable hardness and sharpness of
outline which destroyed the semblanc