As she crossed the narrow hallway a breath of the fresh, chilly morning air blew across her face. The door that Mrs. Carroll had securely locked the night before was standing wide open, and the wind from the sea was blowing coolly in.
With a terrible foreboding of some impending calamity, Xenie sprang through the open doorway of Lora's room, and ran to the bed.
Oh! horrors, the bed was empty!
The beautiful young mother and the little babe, the day-star of Xenie's bright hopes, were gone!
Xenie looked around her wildly, but the pretty little chamber was silent and tenantless.
With a cry of fear and dread commingled, she rushed toward the door, and encountered her mother creeping slowly in, like a pallid ghost, in the chilly, glimmering dawn of the new day.
"Oh, mamma, where is Lora?" she cried, in a faint voice, while her limbs seemed to totter beneath her.
Mrs. Carroll shook her head, and put her hands to her throat, while her pallid features seemed to work with convulsive emotion. The terrible shock she had sustained seemed to have stricken her dumb.
"Oh, mamma, mamma, cannot you speak? Cannot you tell me?" implored her daughter.