Mrs Wilton made no reply, but, free from her husband's coercion now, she hurried along the corridor to the other wing, to begin knocking at her son's door, and then went down upon her knees, with her lips to the keyhole, begging him within to speak. "Such a set of blockheads," growled Wilton; "and I was just as bad, Doctor. In the hurry and excitement that never occurred to me. You see you've come in cool, and ready to grasp everything. Poor girl, she was a bit upset yesterday, and I suppose it was too much for her. Boys will be boys, and I had a quarrel with my son." This in a confidential whisper, as they crossed the hall, but Leigh hardly heard him in his anxiety, and as they passed out and along the front of the house he said, hurriedly: "I'll go on, sir. I see they have the ladder there." "What!" cried Wilton, excitedly, "they can't have got it yet, and--God bless me! what does this mean?" He broke into a run, for there, in full view now, at the end of the house, with its broad foot in a flower-bed, was one of the fruit-gathering ladders, just long enough to reach the upper windows, and resting against the sill beneath that of Kate's room. He reached the place first, clapped his hands upon the sides, and ascended a couple of rounds, but stepped back directly, with his florid face mottled with white, and his lips quivering with excitement as he spoke. "Here, you're a lighter man than I, Doctor; go up. The window's open, too." Leigh sprang up, mad now with anxiety and a horrible dread; but as he reached the window he paused and hesitated, for more than one reason, the principal being a fear of finding that which he suspected true. "In with you, man--in with you," cried Wilton; "it is no time for false delicacy now;" and as he spoke he began to ascend in turn. Leigh sprang in, and at a glance saw that the bed had not been pressed, and that there was no sign of struggle and disturbance in the daintily furnished room. No chair overset, no candlestick upon the floor, but all looking as if ready for its occupant, save that an extinguisher was upon one of the candles beside the dressing-table glass. "Gone!" cried a hoarse voice behind him, as he stood there, shrinking in the midst of the agony he felt, for it seemed to him like a sacrilege to be present. Leigh started round, to find Wilton's head at the open casement, and directly after the heavy man stepped in. "No, no," he shouted back, as the ladder began to bend again. "Not you. Stop below. No; take this ladder to the hall door, and wait." He banged to, and fastened the casement, after seizing the top of the ladder, and giving it a thrust which sent it over with a crash on to the gravel. "Don't seem like a doctor's business, sir," continued Wilton, gravely; "but you medical men have to be confidential, so keep your tongue quiet about what you have seen."