ill, he thought. He began to reproach himself,--why had he been such a
fool as to let her go?--why had he not detained her?--or at any rate,
persuaded her to rest a few days in Hull? He looked at the threatening
sky and the falling flakes of snow with a shiver.

"What weather!" he muttered, "and there must be a darkness as of death
at the Altenfjord!"

Meanwhile the _Black Polly_--unhandsome as she was in appearance,
struggled gallantly with and overcame an army of furious waves that rose
to greet her as she rounded Spurn Head, and long ere Thelma closed her
weary eyes in an effort to sleep, was plunging, shivering, and fighting
her slow way through shattering mountainous billows and a tempest of
sleet, snow, and tossing foam across the wild North Sea.

CHAPTER XXVII.

"What of her glass without her? The blank grey
There, where the pool is blind of the moon's face--
Her dress without her? The tossed empty space
Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away!"
DANTE G. ROSSETTI.

"Good God!" cried Errington impatiently "What's the matter? Speak out!"

He had just arrived home. He had barely set foot within his own door,
and full of lover-like ardor and eagerness was about to hasten to his
wife's room,--when his old servant Morris stood in his way trembling and
pale-faced,--looking helplessly from him to Neville,--who was as much
astonished as Sir Philip, at the man's woe-begone appearance.

"Something has happened," he stammered faintly at last. "Her ladyship--"

Philip started--his heart beat quickly and then seemed to grow still
with a horrible sensation of fear.

"What of her?" he demanded in low hoarse tones. "Is she ill?"

Morris threw up his hands with a gesture of despair.

"Sir Philip, my dear master!" cried the poor old man. "I do not know
whether she is ill or well--I cannot guess! My lady went out last night
at a little before eight o'clock,--and--and she has never come home at
all! We cannot tell what has become of her! She has gone!"

And tears of distress and anxiety filled his eyes. Philip stood mute. He
could not understand it. All color fled from his face--he seemed as
though he had received a sudden blow on the head which had stunned him.

"Gone!" he said mechanically. "Thelma--my wife gone! Why should she go?"

And he stared fixedly at Neville, who laid one hand soothingly on his
arm.

"Perhaps she is with fri