Page 20 (2/2)

"She will never know through me," James said, "and I think with you that

her resentment will not last"

"She will be hoood"

But the two returned from their afternoon calls, and still Clemency had

not returned E says she is worried

about Miss Clemency," she said Gordon ran upstairs When he came down

he joined James in the office "I have pacified Clara," he said, "but

suppose you juy, Aaron has not unharnessed yet, and

drive over to Annie Lipton's for her It is growing colder, and Clemency

has not been outdoors much lately, and she has rather a delicate throat

It is time now that she was home"

Jaested

"Nonsense," said Gordon "She will be only too glad if you meet her

half-way She will coht," replied Ja rapidly He had the

team, and the horses were still quite fresh, as they had not been long

distances that day There was a vague fear in the young h he tried to dispel it by the force of arguirl to fear now?" his reason kept dinning in his ears, but, in spite

of hi else, which seemed to him unreason, made him

anxious When he reached Annie Lipton's ho

with a delicate tracery of withered vines, he saw Annie's pretty head at

a frontShe opened the door before he had ti at hian, but Annie

interrupted hi perceptibly "Clemency," she said;

"why, she left here directly after lunch She said she o She felt

anxious about her er

Hasn't she come home yet?"

"No," said James

"And you didn't meet her? Youat each other A delicate old face peeped out of

the door at the right of the halls It was like Annie's, only diray hair as sot home!" Annie cried "Dr Elliot, this

is ot home What do you think has

happened?"

The lady came out in the hall She had a quiet serenity of manner, but

her soft eyes looked anxious "Could she have stopped anywhere, dear?"

she said

"You know, le house between here and her ohere Cle all over

Ja to do?" cried Annie

"Stop at every house between here and Doctor Gordon's, and ask if the

people have seen her," replied Jay, and heard as he went a little nervous

call from Annie, "Oh, let us know if--"

"I will let you knohen I find her, Miss Lipton," he called back as he

gathered up the lines He kept his word He did stop at every house, and

at every one all knowledge of the girl was disclai a lonely one He was met mostly by women who

seemed at once to share his anxiety One woman especially asked very

carefully for a description of Cleave a minute one "You

say her mother is ill, too," said the woman She was elderly, but still

pretty She had kept her tints of youth as so to her the ats to dry rose leaves She was dressed in rather a

superior fashion to most of the countrywoht, tall figure adlimpse

behind her of a pretty interior: a roo

plants, of easy-chairs and many cushioned sofas, beside book-cases The

woht, like one who had so up and down the road, as they talked, as

though she, too, were on the watch for so girl "Poor little thing," shein her face as she said that, a slight phase of

amusement, which caused James to stare keenly at her, but it had passed,

and her whole face denoted the utmost candor and concern

When James reached home he had a forlorn hope that he should find

Clemency there; that from a spirit of mischief she had taken some cross

track over the fields to elude him But when Aaron htened stare, he knew that she had not come

It was unnecessary to ask, but ask he did "She has not come?"

"No, Doctor Elliot," replied Aaron He did not even chew He tied the

horses, and followed James into the office, with his jaws stiff Gordon

stood up when James entered, and looked past him for Clemency "She was

not there?" he almost shouted

"She left the Liptons at two o'clock, and I have stopped at every house

on my way, and no one has seen her"

"Oh, my God!" said Gordon, with a dazed look at James

"What do you think?" asked James

"I don't knohat to think I am utterly at a loss now I supposed she

was entirely safe There are alht At two, you said? It is almost six I don't knohat to

do What will co else"

Gordon rushed out of the office, and they heard his heavy tread on the

stairs Aaron stared at James, and still he did not chew

"It's alot to take lanterns, and hunt along the road and fields"

"Yes, we have"

The dog, which had been asleep, got up, and came over to James, and laid

his white head on his knee "We can take his have more sense than us"

"That is so," said Jaony of helplessness

He simply did not knohat to do He had sunk into a chair and his head

fairly rung It seeirl had disappeared a

second time A queer sense of unreality made him feel faint

Gordon reëntered the room "I have told Clara that you have coht with Annie Lipton," he said Then

he, too, stood staring helplessly Erily to the three dazed oodness' sake," said she, "and hunt and do soit

her supper, and I'll keep her pacified" E's roooodness' sake, if you don't know

yet where she has went, why don't you do somethin'?" she demanded The

men went before her sharp command like dust before her broom "Keep as

still as you can," ordered Eit to

worryin' before she comes home"

For the next two hours Gordon, Ja his separate way into the fields and woods on the road,

having agreed upon a signal when the girl should be found The signal

was to be a pistol shot James went first to the wood, where he had

found Clemency on her for the gleam of his lantern into little dark nests of last year's

ferns, and hollohere last year's leaves had swirled together to die,

but no Clemency At last, wearied and heart-sick, he came out on the

road The moon was just up, a full moon, and the road lay stretched

before hiazed

down it hopelessly, and saw a little dark figure running toward hilad little cry answered hiirl was

in his ar as if her heart would break

"What has happened? What has happened, darling?" Jaony "Are you hurt? What has happened?"

"Soe has happened, but I anal "Wait a second, dear," he said;

"your uncle and Aaron are searching, and I promised to fire the pistol

if I found you" James fired his pistol in the air six tiainst a tree "Hoe had

driven here!" James said tenderly

"I can walk, if you help ainst hiot punished for it I haven't

been hurt, nobody has been anything but kind to htened"

Gordon and Aaron ca up "Where have you been, Clemency?"

Gordon demanded in a harsh voice "Another time you must do as you are

told You are too old to behave like a child, and put us all in such a

fright"

Cle to hi

hysterically "Oh, Uncle Tom, don't scold me," she whimpered

"Are you hurt? What has happened?"

"I am not hurt a bit," sobbed Clemency

Gordon put his ar as you are safe

keep your story until we get home Elliot, take her other ar, Clemency"

When they were home, in the office, Clee one She had been on her way home from Annie Lipton's, and had

reached a certain house, when the door opened and a wo her She described the woave a

start "That must be the same woman whom I saw," he exclaimed

"She was a woman I had never seen," said Clemency "I think she had only

lived there a very short tilooe

that I did not suspect"

"She looked very kind and pleasant," said Cle and there was no har I knew she had hold of me, and her hands were like iron clamps

She put one over my mouth, and held me with the other, and pulled o into a little

dark room in the middle of the house and she locked me in She told me

if I screamed nobody would hear me, but she did speak kindly She was

very kind Once she even kissed ht a lamp in, and lass of wine She told me not to be afraid, nobody would hurt , and every now and then she went

out, but she always locked the door behind her When she came back she

would look terribly worried About half an hour ago she went out, and

when she caht a tray with tea and bread and cold chicken

forwhile she kept

me there She did not seem to pay much attention, she looked so

dreadfully worried She sat down and looked at me Finally, she said, as

if she were afraid to hear her own voice, 'Has any accident happened

near here lately that you have heard of?' I told her about the man that

fell down in our drive and died of erysipelas I did not tell her

anything else All at once she almost fell in a faint Then she stood

up, and she looked as if she were dead She told o, but I ain, and her lips were like ice She went out, and I

knew the door was not locked, but I was afraid to stir I could hear her

running about Then I heard the outer door slam, and I looked at my

watch, and it was fifteen minutes Then I ran out and up the road as

fast as I could Just before I saw Doctor Elliot the New York train

passed I heard it I think she was hurrying to catch that"

Gordon nodded

"Oh, Uncle Tom, as she, and why did she lock me up?" asked

Clemency

"Clemency," said Gordon, in a sterner voice than Clemency had ever heard

him use toward her, "never speak, never think, of that woo out and eat your dinner"