"I wrote to America," then said her friend, "to an agent, requesting him to ascertain how and where your husband was. An hour before you entered the room I received his answer. It is here. It will be best to hide nothing from you. I will read what my correspondent says." He opened the letter, and read: "I have made inquiries after Mr. Holdfast, and am informed, upon undoubted authority, that he left America for England some weeks ago." Mrs. Holdfast's friend read this extract without comment, but Mrs. Holdfast did not appear to realize the true import of the information. "Do you not understand?" asked her friend. "Mr. Holdfast, some weeks ago, left America for England." "Impossible," said the bewildered woman; "if he were here--in England--I should not be with you at this moment, asking you to assist me to find him." Her friend was silent. "Help me!" she implored. "Do you think he is here?" "I am certain that he has left America," was the reply. A new fear assailed her. "Perhaps," she whispered, "the ship he sailed in was wrecked." "That is not probable," said her friend. "Mr. Holdfast, as a man of the world and a gentleman of means, undoubtedly took passage in a fast steamer. In all human probability your husband landed at Liverpool within nine or ten days of his departure from New York." "And then?" asked Mrs. Holdfast. "Who can say what happened to him them? It is, of course, certain that his desire was to come to you without delay." "He would not have lingered an hour," said Mrs. Holdfast. "An hour! He would not have lingered a moment. He would be only too eager, too anxious, to rejoin me. And there was another motive for his impatience--his child, whose face he has never seen, whose lips he has never kissed! Unhappy woman that I am!" Her friend waited until she had somewhat mastered her grief, and then he asked her a question which opened up another channel for fear. "Was your husband in the habit of carrying much money about with him?" "A large sum; always a large sum. He often had as much as a thousand pounds in notes in his pocket-book." "It was injudicious." "He was most careless in money matters," said Mrs. Holdfast; "he would open his pocket-book in the presence of strangers, recklessly and without thought. More than once I have said to him that I should not wonder if he was robbed of it one day. But even in that case--suppose he _had_ incited some wretch's cupidity; suppose he _was_ robbed--it would not have prevented him from hastening to me and his child." "Do not imagine," said her friend, "that in what I am about to say I desire to add to your difficulties and distress of mind. The length of time since you have heard from your husband--the fact that he left America and landed in England--make the case alarming. Your husband is not a man who would calmly submit to an outrage. Were an attempt made to rob him he would resist." "Indeed he would--at the hazard of his life."