'She has not gone far yet, but she means never to come back. I know where she is; she is hiding. You see, Mr. Charteris is at Albany; he has some business about some bill he wants to get through the Legislature, and it will keep him there a while; and Josey took the opportunity. She ran away; and I should never have known where to, only that the person she went to came and told me. It is a woman who used to be housekeeper for mamma; a very respectable woman; and Josey went to her. Think of it! And she won't come back. Not for me. And then I thought, if anybody living could have any influence over her, it might be you. She always thought all the world of you. Is it very bold in me to ask you? But Mrs. Rollo, I was desperate!' Poor Annabella's looks and tones did not belie her. Wych Hazel sat back again, thinking. 'Marry a _man_,' she said slowly, 'and you may be able to live along without an "establishment." But if you marry an establishment, the small appendage that goes along with it— But she must come back, of course! at once,' Hazel exclaimed, retaking her impetuous tones. 'Won't come?—she _must_.' 'If you can only make her?' said Annabella. 'Nobody knows anything yet—and Charteris will not be home for days. But I have not told you quite the whole. There is another person concerned. I am afraid,'—Annabella spoke with bated breath—'she means to go to Europe.' 'Stuart Nightingale—' 'Oh do you know that?' Annabella burst forth with a cry that was almost pitiful. 'Do you know that? Is there no hope? Can we do nothing?' Usually so calm and impassive, Miss Powder's manner to-day was in a sort of shattered condition. Hazel's mention of Stuart's name had startled her into an access of fear. And the difficulty of managing a volcano from the outside came strongly into Wych Hazel's mind. She answered slowly, 'I do not know. We will try.' 'And may I take you to her now? There is no time to lose.' Hazel assented, thinking busily. 'This is _her_ resource,' she said to herself. 'The pocket pistol would have been mine.' The carriage rolled on now for a time without any more words passing between its inmates. Both ladies were meditating, ways and means and hindrances. The grey sky under which they had begun their drive, seemed to be letting itself down closer and closer upon the earth; and this low grey canopy was becoming suspiciously smooth and uniform. The air was quite still, and had as I said, suddenly grown mild. But neither of the two busy thinkers noticed the signs abroad. 'Mrs. Rollo,' Annabella began after a long pause,—'I am afraid you can do nothing with Phinny. She always has had her own way, and she is obstinate. Suppose you cannot make her listen to you; do you think you could have any power with Mr. Nightingale?'