But the dinner went over well enough. Mrs. Dalyell kept looking at the door every time it opened, though she knew it was only to admit a new dish, expecting her telegram. But it did not come. And the nine o’clock train arrived, and there was still no appearance of the master of the house. The footman was sent down to meet the train, and Wedderburn put on his coat, and said shyly that he would just take a turn and meet the truant. And the girls ran out by the terrace, and one strayed down the avenue to bring papa home. And though it was cold, Mrs. Dalyell opened one of the drawing-room windows that she might hear him coming. She was not alarmed: but she was so much surprised that it made her a little uneasy, for in all her married life such a thing had never happened to her before. When it proved that he had not come by the nine o’clock train nobody knew what to think. By this time the telegraph-office was closed at the village, and there was no longer any hope of news that way: which, strangely enough, was a thing that rather calmed than otherwise Mrs. Dalyell’s mind. “He must be coming by the midnight express,” she said. “Would you like me to go in and see if there was anything the matter?” said Mr. Wedderburn. “What could be the matter?” she said. “Oh, he might be ill--or there might have been an accident!” “In that case,” said Mrs. Dalyell, “Robert never would have omitted to send a telegram--or the people at the office, or wherever he was, would have done it. No, no! You would go in to Edinburgh anxious, and we could not let you know that he had got the express to stop. Just stay where you are. And we’ll hear all about it when he comes. And it’s a comfort to have you in the house.” To this request Mr. Wedderburn at once yielded. If the poor fellow did come home, miserable and disheartened, it was better that he should see a friend’s face, and take counsel with a man who was ready to help and advise before he told _her_. Besides, it was better for her, poor thing, to have somebody to stand by her. And, oddly enough, now that there was no chance of that telegram she was not so anxious. She had no doubt of Robert coming by the express. She let Alice stay up beyond her bedtime to make up a rubber for Mr. Wedderburn, and took her share in the game quite cheerfully. She did not believe in either illness or accident. “He would have had no peace till I was by his bedside,” she said; “and anybody could have sent a telegram.” No, no, she had no fear of that: and expected now quite calmly the last train. But Mr. Dalyell did not come by the midnight express. CHAPTER IV.