"She told me then to go back to the stable, but to be sure and come for her at four o'clock. I asked where I was to come, and she laughed pleasantly and said, 'Come to Bailie Brodie's,' and gave me the Crescent, and the number o' the house forbye." "Did you go to Bailie Brodie's at four o'clock?" "I did that same thing, ma'am." "Well?" "A servant lass told me Miss Campbell hadna been there that day, nor that week. So I drove home again, and at half after five I went to the train for Mr. Campbell, but I missed him. He had come by an early train, while I was at Brodies'." "Did you notice any one speak to Miss Campbell?" "No one." "Did she take the right way to Brodies'?" "She took the best way--up Sauchiehall Street." "That will do, Scot." Scot shut the door, and the two women looked with troubled eyes into each other's faces. Mrs. Campbell then turned to the clock and said, "It is on the stroke of nine, Isabel. We will wait until ten; then I shall speak to your brother." The hour went miserably, almost silently away, and then Mrs. Campbell went to her son. He treated her fears with contemptuous indifference. "It is like you women," he said, "you always make a mountain out of a molehill. If any one of the women in this house knows how to take care of herself, it is Christina Campbell! Go to your beds, and tell Jepson to sit up for her." "Robert, do you understand that she said she was going to the Brodies', and then did not go?" "Who said she was not there?" "One of the Brodie servant lasses." "_Tush!_ She went there, no doubt, but did not stay long enough to acquaint that particular servant with her visit. I have no doubt Marion Brodie and Christina went off somewhere together, and they are likely together at this hour." "I never thought of that, Robert. Indeed it is very likely they went to Netta Galbraith, who is to be second bridesmaid." "Of course, and they are having a mock marriage in order to practise their parts. I hope we shall have no more marriages in the family, they are ruinously expensive, and make nothing but misery and anxiety." Mrs. Campbell sighed, and lifted her eyes heaven-ward, but she did not remain with her son. She was really afraid to leave Isabel, for she looked almost distracted, and on the point of vision. "And I will not have it," she whispered to herself, "no, I will not. There shall be no prophecy of calamity in this house, whether from the dead or the living--not if mortal woman can help it." She opened the dining-room door to this thought, and Isabel stayed her rapid walk and asked anxiously, "Well, mother?" "Your brother says there is no occasion to worry. He made out a very clear case of the circumstance," and she explained his supposition concerning Christina's and Marion Brodie's visit together to Netta Galbraith. Isabel shook her head. "That is not it," she answered positively. "He advised us to go to bed."