"Gone!" cried the wretched girl. "Gone! Where is she? What has become of her? Elizabeth, Elizabeth!"
She shrieked frightfully in her anguish—cried out in such terrible anxiety, that the sound reached the chamber where Grantley Mellen sat.
He went out into the hall and approached the door of the dressing-room. Elsie heard him—her first impulse was to flee but her limbs refused to move.
She heard him try the door—heard him call:
"Elsie! Elsie!"
She must meet him—there was no escape.
Again the summons was repeated, more imperatively now.
"Elsie, open the door—quick, I say!"
She got to the door, she turned the key; her brother entered quickly, and stood in Elizabeth's desolate room.
"Where is Elizabeth?" she cried. "I can't find her—I want Elizabeth."