"They have learned nothing whatever."

"And--and Judge Harvey? When will he be here?"

"His office said he was at a meeting of the directors of the New York
and New England Railroad, and that he was coming here straight after
the meeting."

"Thank you, Miss Gardner. You may now go on with the packing. I'll
have the jewels ready very shortly, and Matilda will be in to help you
as soon as she is through arranging with the servants."

"Why, Cousin Caroline, what is it about Jack?" burst out Olivetta with
an excited flutter after Miss Gardner had gone into the bedroom. "I
hadn't heard anything of it before! Has--has anything happened to
him?"

Olivetta, an intimate, a relative, and a worshipful inferior, was one
of the few persons with whom Mrs. De Peyster could bring herself to
unbend and be confidential. "That is what I do not know. About a week
ago Jack suddenly disappeared--"

"Disappeared!"

"Oh, he left a note, telling me not to worry. But not a word has been
heard from him since. Of course, it may only be some wild escapade,
but then he knew we were going on shipboard this evening, and he
should have been home long before this."

"How terrible!" cried the sympathetic Olivetta, pushing into place a