Wardour; for, by Heaven! I am utterly in the
dark."

"It means just this--and I don't know but I am making a fool of myself
to tell you--that the girl was seen in your company late last night,
and has been neither seen nor heard of since."

"My God!" cried Tom, now first laying hold of the fact; and with the
word he turned and started for the stable. His run, however, broke
down, and with a look of scared bewilderment he came back to Godfrey.

"Mr. Wardour," he said, "what am I to do? Please advise me. If we raise
a hue and cry, it will set people saying all manner of things, pleasant
neither for you nor for us."

"That is your business, Mr. Helmer," answered Godfrey, bitterly. "It is
you who have brought this shame on her."

"You are a cold-hearted man," said Tom. "But there is no shame in the
matter. I will soon make that clear--if only I knew where to go after
her. The thing is to me utterly mysterious: there are neither robbers
nor wild beasts about Thornwick. What _can_ have happened to her?"

He turned his back on Godfrey for a moment, then, suddenly wheeling,
broke out:

"I will tell you what it is; I see it all now; she found out that she
had been seen, and was too terrified to go into the house again!--Mr.
Wardour," he continued, with a new look in his eyes, "I have more
reason to be suspicious of you and your mother than you have to suspect
me. Your treatment of Letty has not been of the kindest."

So Letty had been accusing him of unkindness! Ready as he now was to
hear anything to her disadvantage, it was yet a fresh stab to the heart
of him. Was this the girl for whom, in all honesty and affection, he
had sought to do so much! How could she say he was unkind to her?--and
say it to a fellow like this? It was humiliating, indeed! But he would
not defend himself. Not to Tom, not to his mother, not to any living
soul, would he utter a word even resembling blame of the girl! He, at
least, would carry himself generously! Everything, though she had
plunged his heart in a pitcher of gall, should be done for her sake!
She should go to her lover, and leave blame behind her with him! His
sole care should be that the wind-bag should not collapse and slip out
of it, that he should actually marry her; and, as soon as he had handed
him over to her in safety, he would have done with her and with all
women for ever, except his mother! Not once more would he speak to one
of them in tone of friendship!

He looked a