"Well, I will be domd!" he said.
At last the bogies had him in their grip.
CHAPTER XIII.
By the time that Paul had got to the Ghyll his anxiety had reached the point of anguish. Perhaps it had been no more than a fancy, but he thought as he approached the house that a mist hung about it. When he walked into the hall his footsteps sounded hollow to his ear, and the whole place seemed empty as a vault. The spirit-deadening influence of the surroundings was upon him, when old Dinah Wilson came from the kitchen and looked at him with surprise. Clearly he had not been expected. He wanted to ask twenty questions, but his tongue cleaved to his mouth. The strong man trembled and his courage oozed away.
Why did not the woman speak? How scared she looked, too! He was brushing past her, and up the stairs, when she told him, in faltering tones, that her mistress was gone.
The word coursed through his veins like poison. "Gone! how gone?" he said. Could it be possible that his mother was dead?
"Gone away," said Dinah.
"Away! Where?"
"Gone by train, sir, this afternoon."