"Bob will stay to luncheon at Oakwood, it's so late," said Sydney to him as they parted at his gate. "You'll not forget to find out in some way if the Baron is ill, will you?"
"No, my dear, I'll watch him like the Pinkertons' eye that never sleeps," returned the old man, genially.
"Mrs. Carroll has gone into the dining-room," the servant told them at the door, and Sydney assumed much cheerfulness as she made her apologies.
"I've brought Bob, grandmother. He's been all over everywhere with me this morning. You'll forgive me, Katrina, for leaving you, won't you? Where's Mr. Wendell?"
"Not back from Asheville yet."
"He went in yesterday," explained Mrs. Carroll to Bob. "I suppose the train is late. It does seem as if they grow more and more uncertain, and when there are only two a day each way, it certainly is annoying, very. You wouldn't know what to make of so meagre an arrangement, would you, Katrina dear?"
"There's the carriage now," said Bob. "The train couldn't have been much over an hour behind time; surely you wouldn't complain of that."
"I feel as if I had been journeying for days," said John, sitting down, "and had seen the sights of far-distant worlds."
"It's the obelisk in Court Square that makes you think that," suggested Sydney.
"Or the battlements on the library building," added Bob.