"The train is due at Aberdeen at nine-forty-five, and if it keeps time we may expect him here about ten-fifteen," said her mother. "I have ordered Donald to have the trap ready to drive me to the station to meet him at that hour; so we breakfast at eight-thirty."
"Very well, mother; then I will tell Alice to call me at eight"; and with a good-night kiss the young girl left the room.
Before following her daughter's example, Mrs. Sinclair drew a letter from her pocket bearing a foreign postmark, to read—not for the first time—the intelligence which was already well impressed upon her memory—
"DEAR MOTHER,—I leave Antwerp to-morrow morning at six o'clock, and hope to return by the night mail, due in Aberdeen at nine-forty-five the next morning. Your loving son, RALPH."
With fond anticipations of the morning, the anxious mother retired to rest.
* * * * *
The morning broke in the midst of a proverbial Scotch mist, and everything presented a damp and uncanny appearance, calculated to produce a depressing influence upon minds expectant and anxious.
Mrs. Sinclair had spent a restless and uneasy night, thinking of him she hoped so soon to clasp in a motherly embrace. Her son had been absent now some months, travelling on the Continent, on business for the firm by whom he was employed, and the nearer the time of his return, the greater was the mother's agitation and anxiety; so that it was only by a supreme effort she was enabled to control her feelings and maintain an outwardly calm appearance. Breakfast was all too rapidly despatched for full justice to have been done to it, and mother and daughter mounted the trap, which Donald drove with all needful speed to the station, where they found they had still some time to wait.
The train was late in arriving, but when it drew up at the platform eager and anxious glances were directed on each passenger as he alighted. They failed, however, to discover the one they were in search of; and when at length the platform was deserted, they had reluctantly to admit that Ralph had not travelled by that train, but what could have prevented his doing so they were utterly at a loss to conjecture.
CHAPTER V.