The reason which Mr. Van Ness offered for Jane's disappearance, he protested, would suggest itself to everybody as the only possible one: her grief had deranged her, and she had wandered away bent on self-destruction. But the house was filled now with the friends of the captain, among them Judge Rhodes and Mrs. Wilde, and he read doubt and lurking suspicion on every face. The judge, it is true, directed the hurried searches through the grounds and the dragging of the lake. "But I wish the captain had not pushed the marriage so hard. Drill-major to the last gasp. I was to blame in suggesting it at first," he said, point-blank to Van Ness. "Suicide? Nothing of the kind," said Mrs. Wilde. "Jane is eccentric, as every thoroughly truthful woman is. But sane. One of the sanest people I know." She summoned Betty, and the two women were closeted together for half an hour. "You should have sent for me," she said when the story was ended. "The child should not have been left to the tender mercies of these men. Call him in." When Van Ness appeared he saw that the old lady's eyes were red. "You are going in pursuit of her? Mrs. Nichols has told me all," she said blandly. "I shall search for her, undoubtedly. Her mind was evidently shaken. There is a bare chance that she may have gone on the train. But the river being so near and her grief so great, I fear the worst, Mrs. Wilde." "No doubt, no doubt! But if you do follow her on the train--How was she dressed, Betty?" "In gray. Black hat and gray feather," said Betty like a parrot. "Thank you! That will be of assistance to me.--They are trying to help her escape," he thought as he went out, with a bow and melancholy smile. He had waited to talk with Mr. Lampret. He asked him for a certificate of the marriage. "If my wife is living and wandering insane through the country, it will be necessary to prove my right to claim her." To his surprise, the clergyman grew red and stammered, with a painful anxiety in his boyish face. "I fear we were too hasty, Mr. Van Ness. Are you quite sure she consented freely to the marriage? There was no moral compulsion used?" "There was none," coldly. "My marriage, as I believe, had in it all the elements of future happiness. Besides, that is hardly a question, it appears to me, for you to consider now. Whether suitable or not, the marriage was legal. When can you give me the certificate?" Mr. Lampret did not speak for a moment. "I suppose it is irrevocable," he said with a long breath. "The making out of the certificate will involve a delay of a couple of hours." "I shall wait for it," said Van Ness. * * * * *