"I am all right," said Maria; but as she spoke she realized that her knees fairly bent under her, and her heart beat loudly in her ears, for they had come in sight of the station. "You are sure?" Harry said, anxiously. "Yes, I am all right. I want to go to school." "Well, look out that you eat a good luncheon," said Harry, as he kissed her good-bye. Maria had to go to the other side to take her Wardway train. She left her father and went under the bridge and mounted the stairs. When she gained the platform, the first person whom she saw, with a grasp of vision which seemed to reach her very heart, although she apparently did not see him at all, was Wollaston Lee. He also saw her, and his boyish face paled. There were quite a number waiting for the train, which was late. Maud Page was among them. Maria at once went close to her. Maud asked about her little sister. She had heard that she was found, although it was almost inconceivable how the news had spread at such an early hour. "I am real glad she's found," said Maud. Then she stared curiously at Maria. "Say, was it so?" she asked. "Was what true?" asked Maria, trembling. "Was it true that you and Wollaston Lee and Gladys Mann all went to New York looking for your sister, and came out on the last train?" "Yes, it is true," replied Maria, quite steadily. "What ever made you?" "I thought she might have gone to a cousin of Hers who used to live on Forty-ninth Street, but we found the cousin had moved when we got there." "Gracious!" said Maud. "And you didn't come out till that last train?" "No." "I should think you would be tired to death, and you don't look any too chipper." Maud turned and stared at Wollaston, who was standing aloof. "I declare, he looks as if he had been up a week of Sundays, too," said she. Then she called out to him, in her high-pitched treble, which sounded odd coming from her soft circumference of throat. Maud's voice ought, by good rights, to have been a rich, husky drone, instead of bearing a resemblance to a parrot's. "Say, Wollaston Lee," she called out, and the boy approached perforce, lifting his hat--"say," said Maud, "I hear you and Maria eloped last night." Then she giggled. The boy cast a glance of mistrust and doubt at Maria. His face turned crimson. "You are telling awful whoppers, Maud Page," Maria responded, promptly, and his face cleared. "We just went in to find Evelyn." "Oh!" said Maud, teasingly. "You are mean to talk so," said Maria. Maud laughed provokingly. "What made Wollaston go for, then?" she asked. "Do you suppose anybody would let a girl go alone to New York on a night train?" said Maria, with desperate spirit. "He went because he was polite, so there." Wollaston said nothing. He tried to look haughty, but succeeded in looking sheepish. "Gladys Mann went, too," said Maria. "I don't see what makes you go with a girl like that anywhere?" said Maud. "She's as good as anybody," said Maria.