I went on as best I could with the description. "I could save you money," he smiled blandly, "by telling you that the girl is not with him—" and I could have wrung his hand like a brother’s. "But," he added, "it won’t cost much to pick him up. I’ll have news for you to-morrow this time, I’m thinking." As I sat down to lunch with Dibdin at his club, though in truth nothing was farther from my cravings than food, he suddenly burst forth into hearty laughter. "So it’s my thousand you gave Pendleton?" he chuckled. "That was sheer inspiration, Randolph—sheer, unadulterated genius! If you weren’t so lugubrious just now, I could accuse you of a high ironic sense of humor that only a great man would be capable of!" How terrible were the next twenty-four hours, in spite of Dibdin’s companionship and his efforts to cheer me, no one will ever know. No funeral could possibly have darkened my household to such an extent. I dreaded to be seen by the children, who walked about like wraiths under the sense of tragedy. I dreaded to tell them lies and yet I could not tell them the truth. Finally I felt I must say something to Laura and Randolph. The departure of their father they received without the least surprise. Randolph inquired where he had gone, but this, I answered, I could not tell him, save that he had gone West. But the absence of Alicia left them puzzled and strained and awed. Alicia’s disappearance shook them almost as it had shaken me. "When will she be back?" demanded Randolph. "I don’t know exactly," I answered miserably, "soon, I hope." The following morning I gave up all thought of going to the office. If my mysterious truancy should cost me my job, then it must be so. I hovered in the region of the telephone. Again and again I was about to call up Mahoney’s, but I forebore. Finally, toward noon, I could wait no longer. When the connection was made, I gave my name and asked for the young man who had charge of my case. "Was just going to call you," was the bland apologetic answer. "Your man is at the La Salle Hotel, going out on the Santa Fe to-night. He is alone and arrived alone last night. We’ll see whether he starts alone to-night." Then, of course, I cursed myself for my folly in thinking that it might be otherwise and realized that I had really thought nothing of the sort. But where in the meanwhile was Alicia? I had believed myself by now schooled to emergencies, but here was an emergency that left me dazed and helpless. I had fondly thought myself a match for life, but life was crushing me with pain like a blind force.