"Doris talked so much to him while he was here," said Mattie, "and from his half-bantering remarks, I think he understood thoroughly how much she disliked the monotony of home. He has very probably found the situation for her."
"I should think so too, but for one thing—he was an honorable man, and he would not have helped her run away from me."
"Perhaps she deceived him. In any case, I think it worth trying," she replied.
"Heaven bless you, Mattie," said Earle. "You are always right. Do not tell any one where I have gone. I shall go to London at once. I will send a note to my mother by one of the men. Good-bye! Heaven bless you, my dear sister who was to have been——"
"Who will be," cried Mattie, "whether you marry Doris or not!"
He wrote a few simple words to his mother, saying merely:
"Do not be alarmed at my absence. I cannot rest—I have gone to find Doris. I shall write often, and return when I have found her."
"Poor mother," he said to himself with a sigh, "I have given her nothing but sorrow of late."
Then he went quietly to Quainton railway station, and was just in time to catch the train for London.
Gregory Leslie was astonished that evening at seeing Earle suddenly enter his studio, and held out his hand to him in warmest welcome.