the mother and son were no longer in the bright hall with its newly cleaned wainscot and whitened floor. When she followed them up-stairs with the water, it was the minister who had dropped into the easy-chair with his face hidden on the table, and his mother was standing beside him. Mrs. Vincent looked up when the girl came in and said, "Thank you--that will do," looking in her face, and not at what she carried. She was of a dreadful paleness, and looked with eyes that were terrible to that wondering observer upon the little attendant. "Perhaps there have been some letters or messages," said Mrs. Vincent. "We--we expected somebody to come; think! a young lady came here?--and when she found we were gone----" "Only Miss Phoebe!" said the girl, in amazement--"to say as her Ma----" "Only Miss Phoebe!" repeated the widow, as if she did not comprehend the words. Then she turned to her son, and smoothed down the ruffled locks on his head; then held out her hand again to arrest the girl as she was going away. "Has your mistress got anything in the house," she asked--"any soup or cold meat, or anything? Would you bring it up, please, directly?--soup would perhaps be best--or a nice chop. Ask what she has got, and bring it up on a tray. You need not lay the cloth--only a tray with a napkin. Yes, I see you know what I mean." "Mother!" cried Vincent, raising his head in utter fright as the maid left the room. He thought in the shock his mother's gentle wits had gone. "You have eaten nothing, dear, since we left," she said, with a heartbreaking smile. "I am not going crazy, Arthur. O no, no, my dear boy! I will not go crazy; but you must eat something, and not be killed too. Susan is not here," said Mrs. Vincent, with a ghastly, wistful look round the room; "but we are not going to distrust her at the very first moment, far less her Maker, Arthur. Oh, my dear, I must not speak, or something will happen to me; and nothing must happen to you or me till we have found your sister. You must eat when it comes, and then you must go away. Perhaps," said Mrs. Vincent, sitting down and looking her son direct in the eyes, as if to read any suggestion that could arise there, "she has lost her way:--perhaps she missed one of these dreadful trains--perhaps she got on the wrong railway, Arthur. Oh, my dear boy, you must take something to eat, and then you must go and bring Susan home. She has nobody to take care of her but you."