He was greatly excited, and kept peering through the darkness as he
talked; while John, a good deal puzzled, looked curiously at him, as if
uncertain whether he were in his right mind or not.

'Was there some one with you in the car?' he asked.

'Yes, in the car, and in New York, and on the ship. She was with me all
the way,' Mr. Tracy replied. 'It is strange where she is now. Did no one
alight from the train when I did?'

'No one,' John answered, more puzzled than ever.... 'I was looking for
you, and there was no one else. She may have fallen asleep and been
carried by.'

'Yes, probably that is it,' Mr. Tracy said, more cheerfully, 'she was
asleep and carried by. She will come back to-morrow.'

He seemed quite content with this solution of the mystery, and began to
talk of his luggage, which lay upon the platform--a pile so immense that
John looked at it in some alarm, knowing that the carriage could never
take it all.

'Eight trunks, two portmanteaus, and a hat-box!' he said, aloud,
counting the pieces.

'Yes, and a nice sum those rascally agents in New York made me pay for
having them come with me,' Arthur rejoined. 'They weighed them all, and
charged me a little fortune. I might as well have sent them by express;
but I wanted them with me, and here they are. What will you do with
them? This is hers,' and he designated a black trunk or box, longer and
larger than two ordinary trunks ought to be.

'I can take one of them with the box and portmanteau, and the expressman
will take the rest. He is here. Hallo, Brown,' John said, calling to a
man in the distance, who came forward, and, on learning what was wanted,
begun piling the trunks into his wagon, while Arthur followed John, to
the carriage, which he entered, and, sinking into a seat, pulled his
broad-brimmed hat over his face and eyes, and sat as motionless as if he
had been a stone.

For a moment John stood looking at him, wondering what manner of man he
was, and thinking, too, of the woman who, he said, had been with him in
the train, and who should have alighted with him. At last, remembering
suddenly a message his master had given him, he began:

'If you please, sir, Mr. Tracy told me to tell you he was very sorry
that he could not come himself to meet you. If he had known that you
were coming sooner, he would have done different; but he did not get
your telegram till this morning, and then it was too late to stop it. We
are having a great break-dow