"Eh—what? I don't think I understand you," said Charlie Meredith.
"Your niece went home at daylight this morning," Mr. Earle repeated.
The farmer's healthy brown skin turned pale. He looked dazed.
"Mr. Earle, you must be mistaken," he said. "Lina has never been home to-day. She walked over here yesterday afternoon, and she has not been at home since."
"She certainly left Laurel Hill early this morning," Mr. Earle said, perplexed. "Walter walked with her to the lawn gates. He wished to drive her over in the phaeton, but she declined, so he told me, and insisted on going home alone. I sincerely trust that no harm has befallen little Lina."
Mr. Meredith looked grave and a good deal troubled.
"Is it not strange she should have started home so soon in the morning? I cannot understand it."
Walter came out just then. He grew pale when they told him that Jaquelina had never come home that day. He remembered what a hopeless despair had looked at him from the dark eyes and the fair young face when they parted.
"And yet I never dreamed of anything wrong," he said to himself, with a pang of pain at his heart. "Oh, why did I let her go alone? I should have known better from the look on her face."