s was packed before breakfast, so they
can be sent off as soon as you like," Mrs. Montague returned.

He attended to the strapping of them himself, and a little later they
were taken away.

Mona wondered somewhat at this arrangement. She thought the trunks might
just as well have gone with them, but concluded that Louis did not wish
to be troubled with them at the last moment, as he had said.

At half-past six they left the hotel, and drove to the pier where the
steamboat lay.

Louis hurried the ladies on board, and to their staterooms, telling them
to make haste and get settled, as dinner would be served as soon as the
boat left the landing.

He had secured three staterooms for their use, another circumstance which
appeared strange to Mona, as she and Mrs. Montague had occupied one
together in coming down the river.

"Perhaps," she said to herself, "she is angry because I insisted upon
going home, and does not wish to have me with her. I believe, however,
I shall like it best by myself."

She arranged everything to her satisfaction, and then sat down by her
window to wait until the gong should sound for dinner, but a strange
feeling of depression and of homesickness seemed to settle over her
spirits, while her thoughts turned with wistful fondness to her lover so
far away in New York, and she half regretted that she had not insisted
upon returning by rail.

She wondered that she did not hear Mrs. Montague moving about in her
stateroom, but concluded that she had completed, her arrangements for the
night and gone on deck.

Presently the last signal was given, and the steamer swung slowly away
from the levee. A few moments later the gong sounded for dinner, and Mona
went out into the saloon to look for her companions.

She met Louis Hamblin at the door leading to the dining-saloon, but he
was alone.

"Where is Mrs. Montague?" Mona inquired, and wondering if he was going to
be sick, for he looked pale, and seemed ill at ease.

"Hasn't she been with you?" he asked, appearing surprised at her
question. "I thought she was in her stateroom."

"No, I did not hear her moving about," Mona replied, "so supposed she had
come out."

"Perhaps she is on deck; if you will wait here I will run up to look for
her," Louis remarked, and Mona sat down as he walked away.

He presently returned, but alone.

"She is not up stairs," he said; "I will go to her stateroom; perhaps she
has been lying down; she said she had a h