Titus hurried the shrieking crew into the house and sprang in beside his grandfather.
“Home, Roblee,” said the Judge, and in a few minutes they were before the big stone house on Grand Avenue.
They were met by a disturbed household. Higby, after throwing open the door, stammered and walked backward, and stamped, and tried to ejaculate something, which was drowned by the exclamations of the maidservants, who had assembled in the hall. Foremost among them was Betty, the girl into whose care the Judge had put little Bethany.
Her face was as white as death, and she was wringing her hands. Presently the Judge made out her exclamation, “Child lost!”
“The little girl, do you mean?” he asked, sternly.
“Yes, sir; O! yes, sir.”
“When?”
“Just after you left, sir.”
“Where were you?”
“In my own room. I had laid her on the bed to go to sleep—she went off like that, sir,” and she helplessly extended her arms.